FeO-doped mesoporous carbon cathode with a plumber's nightmare structure for high-performance Li-S batteries.

Shuttling of lithium polysulfides and slow redox kinetics seriously limit the rate and cycling performance of lithium-sulfur batteries. In this study, FeO-dopped carbon cubosomes with a plumber's nightmare structure (SP-FeO-C) are prepared as sulfur hosts to construct cathodes with high rate capability and long cycling life for Li-S batteries. Their three-dimensional continuous mesochannels and carbon frameworks, along with the uniformly distributed FeO particles, enable smooth mass/electron transport, strong polysulfides capture capability, and fast catalytic conversion of the sulfur species.

Increasing the Accessibility of Internal Catalytic Sites in Covalent Organic Frameworks by Introducing a Bicontinuous Mesostructure.

Introducing continuous mesochannels into covalent organic frameworks (COFs) to increase the accessibility of their inner active sites has remained a major challenge. Here, we report the synthesis of COFs with an ordered bicontinuous mesostructure, via a block copolymer self-assembly-guided nanocasting strategy. Three different mesostructured COFs are synthesized, including two covalent triazine frameworks and one vinylene-linked COF.

Ultrahigh-Rate Na/Cl Batteries Through Improved Electron and Ion Transport by Heteroatom-Doped Bicontinuous-Structured Carbon.

Rechargeable sodium/chlorine (Na/Cl ) batteries are emerging candidates for sustainable energy storage owing to their superior energy densities and the high abundance of Na and Cl elements. However, their practical applications have been plagued by the poor rate performance (e.g.

A general synthetic method towards conjugated microporous polymers with ordered bicontinuous mesostructures.

This work demonstrates a universal approach, based on the self-assembly of block copolymers, for the synthesis of novel conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) with bicontinuous mesostructures. Three hexaazatriphenylene (Aza)-fused CMPs (Aza-CMPs) with double diamond structures were synthesized. The study broadens the spectrum of bicontinuous porous materials and opens a new route for synthesizing CMPs with new topologies.

Metal Organic Framework Cubosomes.

We demonstrate a general strategy for the synthesis of ordered bicontinuous-structured metal organic frameworks (MOFs) by using polymer cubosomes (PCs) with a double primitive structure (Im m symmetry) as the template. The filling of MOF precursors in the open channel of PCs, followed by their coordination and removal of the template, generates MOF cubosomes with a single primitive topology (Pm m) and average mesopore diameters of 60-65 nm. Mechanism study reveals that the formation of ZIF-8 cubosomes undergoes a new MOF growth process, which involves the formation of individual MOF seeds in the template, their growth and eventual fusion into the cubosomes.

Block Copolymer Self-Assembly Directed Synthesis of Porous Materials with Ordered Bicontinuous Structures and Their Potential Applications.

Porous materials with their ordered bicontinuous structures have attracted great interest owing to ordered periodic structures as well as 3D interconnected network and pore channels. Bicontinuous structures may favor efficient mass diffusion to the interior of materials, thus increasing the utilization ratio of active sites. In addition, ordered bicontinuous structures confer materials with exceptional optical and magnetic properties, including tunable photonic bandgap, negative refraction, and multiple equivalent magnetization configurations.

Porous Polymer Cubosomes with Ordered Single Primitive Bicontinuous Architecture and Their Sodium-Iodine Batteries.

Bicontinuous porous materials, which possess 3D interconnected pore channels facilitating a smooth mass transport, have attracted much interest in the fields of energy and catalysis. However, their synthesis remains very challenging. We report a general approach, using polymer cubosomes as the template, for the controllable synthesis of bicontinuous porous polymers with an ordered single primitive (SP) cubic structure, including polypyrrole (SP-PPy), poly--phenylenediamine (SP-PmPD), and polydopamine (SP-PDA).

One-Dimensional Helical Nanostructures from the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of an Achiral "Rod-Coil" Alternating Copolymer.

The self-assembly of alternating copolymers (ACPs) has attracted considerable interest due to their unique alternating nature. However, compared with block copolymers, their self-assembly behavior remains much less explored and their reported self-assembled structures are limited. Here, the formation of supramolecular helical structures by the self-assembly of an achiral rod-coil alternating copolymer named as poly(quarter(3-hexylthiophene)-alt-poly(ethylene glycol)) (P(Q3HT-alt-PEG)), is reported.

Two-Dimensional MXene-Polymer Heterostructure with Ordered In-Plane Mesochannels for High-Performance Capacitive Deionization.

The application of traditional electrode materials for high-performance capacitive deionization (CDI) has been persistently limited by their low charge-storage capacities, excessive co-ion expulsion and slow salt removal rates. Here we report a bottom-up approach to the preparation of a two-dimensional (2D) Ti C T MXene-polydopamine heterostructure having ordered in-plane mesochannels (denoted as mPDA/MXene). Interfacial self-assembly of mesoporous polydopamine (mPDA) monolayers on MXene nanosheets leads to the mPDA/MXene heterostructure, which exhibits several unique features: (1) MXene undergoes reversible ion intercalation/deintercalation and possesses high conductivity; (2) mPDA layers establish redox capacitive characteristics and Na selectivity, and also help to prevent self-stacking and oxidation of MXene; (3) in-plane mesochannels enable the smooth transport of ions at the internal spaces of this stacked 2D material.