Mesoporous flower-like Co 3 O 4 /C nanosheet composites and their performance evaluation as anodes for lithium ion batteries

Flower-Like Superstructures: Structural Features, Applications and Future Perspectives

Mimicking natural objects such as flowers, is an objective of scientists not only because of their attractive appearance, but also to understand the natural phenomena that underpin real world applications such as drug delivery, enzymatic reactions, electronics, and catalysis, to name few. This article reviews the types, preparation methods, and structural features of flower-like structures along with their key applications in various fields. We discuss the various types of flower-like structures composed of inorganic, organic-inorganic hybrid, inorganic-protein, inorganic-enzyme and organic compositions. We also discuss recent development in flower-like structures prepared by self-assembly approaches. Finally, we conclude our review with the future prospects of flower-like micro-structures in key fields, being biomedicine, sensing and catalysis.

A general strategy toward graphitized carbon coating on iron oxides as advanced anodes for lithium-ion batteries

Integration of carbon materials with benign iron oxides is blazing a trail in constructing high-performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this paper, a unique general, simple, and controllable strategy is developed toward in situ uniform coating of iron oxide nanostructures with graphitized carbon (GrC) layers. The basic synthetic procedure only involves a simple dip-coating process for the loading of Ni-containing seeds and a subsequent Ni-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for the growth of GrC layers. More importantly, the CVD treatment is conducted at a quite low temperature (450 °C) and with extremely facile liquid carbon sources consisting of ethylene glycol (EG) and ethanol (EA). The GrC content of the resulting hybrids can be controllably regulated by altering the amount of carbon sources. The electrochemical results reveal remarkable performance enhancements of iron oxide@GrC hybrids compared with pristine iron oxides in terms of high specific capacity, excellent rate and cycling performance. This can be attributed to the network-like GrC coating, which can improve not only the electronic conductivity but also the structural integrity of iron oxides. Moreover, the lithium storage performance of samples with different GrC contents is measured, manifesting that optimized electrochemical property can be achieved with appropriate carbon content. Additionally, the superiority of GrC coating is demonstrated by the advanced performance of iron oxide@GrC compared with its corresponding counterpart, i.e., iron oxides with amorphous carbon (AmC) coating. All these results indicate the as-proposed protocol of GrC coating may pave the way for iron oxides to be promising anodes for LIBs.

Nano Metal-Organic Framework-Derived Inorganic Hybrid Nanomaterials: Synthetic Strategies and Applications

Nano- (or micro-scale) metal-organic frameworks (NMOFs), also known as coordination polymer particles (CPPs), have received much attention because of their structural diversities and tunable properties. Besides the direct use, NMOFs can be alternatively used as sacrificial templates/precursors for the preparation of a wide range of hybrid inorganic nanomaterials in straightforward and controllable manners. Distinct advantages of using NMOF templates are correlated to their structural and functional tailorability at molecular levels that is rarely acquired in any other conventional template/precursor. In addition, NMOF-derived inorganic nanomaterials with distinct chemical and physical properties are inferred to dramatically expand the scope of their utilization in many fields. In this review, we aim to provide readers with a comprehensive summary of recent progress in terms of synthetic approaches for the production of diverse inorganic hybrid nanostructures from as-synthesized NMOFs and their promising applications.

Porous Co3O4 nanoparticles derived from a Co(ii)-cyclohexanehexacarboxylate metal–organic framework and used in a supercapacitor with good cycling stability

Porous Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were obtained by calcination the Co-based MOF precursors. It exhibited good pseudocapacitive performance in an alkaline medium and displayed slightly enhanced capacitance after 2500 cycles.