Colloidal Nanocrystal-Based BaTiO3 Xerogels as Green Bodies: Effect of Drying and Sintering at Low Temperatures on Pore Structure and Microstructures

Charge Separation in BaTiO3 Nanocrystals: Spontaneous Polarization Versus Point Defect Chemistry

The fate of photogenerated charges within ferroelectric metal oxides is key for photocatalytic applications. The authors study the contributions of i) tetragonal distortion, responsible for spontaneous polarization, and ii) point defects, on charge separation and recombination within BaTiO₃ (BTO) nanocrystals of cubic and tetragonal structure. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in combination with O₂ photoadsorption experiments show that BTO nanocrystals annealed at 600 °C have a charge separation yield enhanced by a factor > 10 compared to TiO₂ anatase nanocrystals of similar geometries. This demonstrates for the first time the beneficial effect of the BTO perovskite nanocrystal lattice on charge separation. Strikingly, charge separation is considerably hindered within BTO nanoparticles annealed ≥ 600 °C, due to the formation of Ba-O divacancies that act as charge recombination centers. The opposing interplay between tetragonal distortion and annealing-induced defect formation inside the lattice highlights the importance of defect engineering within perovskite nanoparticles.

Conducting ITO Nanoparticle-Based Aerogels—Nonaqueous One-Pot Synthesis vs. Particle Assembly Routes

Indium tin oxide (ITO) aerogels offer a combination of high surface area, porosity and conductive properties and could therefore be a promising material for electrodes in the fields of batteries, solar cells and fuel cells, as well as for optoelectronic applications. In this study, ITO aerogels were synthesized via two different approaches, followed by critical point drying (CPD) with liquid CO2. During the nonaqueous one-pot sol–gel synthesis in benzylamine (BnNH2), the ITO nanoparticles arranged to form a gel, which could be directly processed into an aerogel via solvent exchange, followed by CPD. Alternatively, for the analogous nonaqueous sol–gel synthesis in benzyl alcohol (BnOH), ITO nanoparticles were obtained and assembled into macroscopic aerogels with centimeter dimensions by controlled destabilization of a concentrated dispersion and CPD. As-synthesized ITO aerogels showed low electrical conductivities, but an improvement of two to three orders of magnitude was achieved by annealing, resulting in an electrical resistivity of 64.5–1.6 kΩ·cm. Annealing in a N2 atmosphere led to an even lower resistivity of 0.2–0.6 kΩ·cm. Concurrently, the BET surface area decreased from 106.2 to 55.6 m2/g with increasing annealing temperature. In essence, both synthesis strategies resulted in aerogels with attractive properties, showing great potential for many applications in energy storage and for optoelectronic devices.

Surface-tuned hierarchical ɤ-Fe2O3-N-rGO nanohydrogel for efficient catalytic removal and electrochemical sensing of toxic nitro compounds

4- Nitrophenol (4-NP) is a top rated hazardous environmental pollutant and secondary explosive chemicals. For the sake of ecology and environment safety, the catalytic reduction and detection of 4-NP is highly important. In this work, ɤ-Fe₂O₃-nitrogen doped rGO (ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO) nanohydrogel was synthesized by green hydrothermal method. The morphology and phase purity of prepared ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel were confirmed by various analytical (SEM, TEM, XRD, and XPS) and electrochemical techniques. The morphological structure of ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel confirmed that the nanocrystals are well covered over the 2D N-rGO layer. Further, ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel was applied for the catalytic reduction and electrochemical detection of ecotoxic 4-NP. A low cost, ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel displayed an excellent catalytic activity, high recyclability (>5 cycles) and high conversion efficiency of 4-NP to 4-Aminophenol (4-AP). In addition, ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel modified GCE displayed a wide linear sensing range (0.1-1000 μM), and a low detection limit (LOD) of 0.1 μM with excellent sensitivity, high selectivity (<1.2%) and good stability (>4 weeks). The developed sensor electrode shows the low reduction potential of -0.3 V and -0.60 V for the determination of 4-NP. The proposed ɤ-Fe₂O₃-N-rGO nanohydrogel is promising catalyst for the detection and removal of toxic aromatic nitro compounds in real site applications.

Size-controllable synthesis of zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide aerogels: efficient electrochemical sensing of p-nitrophenol

In this study, a nonaqueous method for the synthesis of size-controlled highly crystalline zinc ferrite/reduced graphene oxide (ZFO/rGO) aerogel was provided by using benzyl alcohol as the medium. In our findings, benzyl alcohol was introduced not only as the solvent, but the structure-directing agent and strong reducing agent during the nucleation and growth of ZnFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (NPs). The characterization analysis indicated that ZnFe₂O₄ NPs were immobilized on the multilayer rGO with a controllable size of 12 nm. Moreover, the 3D ZFO/rGO aerogel shows excellent electrochemical property as a facile electrochemical sensor for the detection of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). The ZFO/rGO electrochemical sensing offers the advantages of wide linear range (1-500 μmol l^-1), excellent sensitivity (23.985 mA mM^-1 cm^-2), good stability and selectivity (<8.8%). In addition, the possible reaction mechanism of 3D ZFO/rGO aerogel was explained during the detection process under acidic condition. Significantly, our results not only provided insight into the possible reaction mechanism of 3D ZFO/rGO nanocomposite, but proposed the way for the synthesis of highly crystalline materials through a benzyl alcohol-mediated method.

Control over Structure and Properties in Nanocrystal Aerogels at the Nano-, Micro-, and Macroscale

The assembly of individual colloidal nanocrystals into macroscopic solvogels and aerogels introduced a new exciting type of material into the class of porous architectures. In these so-called nanocrystal gels, the structure and properties can be controlled and fine-tuned to the smallest details. Recently it was shown that by employing nanocrystal building blocks for such gel materials, the interesting nanoscopic properties can be conserved or even expanded to properties that are available neither in the nanocrystals nor in their respective bulk materials. In general, the production of these materials features the wet-chemical synthesis of stable nanocrystal colloids followed by their carefully controlled destabilization to facilitate arrangement of the nanocrystals into highly porous, interconnected networks. By isolation of the synthesis of the discrete building blocks from the assembly process, the electronic structure, optical properties, and structural morphology can be tailored by the myriad of procedures developed in colloidal nanocrystal chemistry. Furthermore, knowledge and control over the structure–property correlation in the resulting gel structures opens up numerous new ways for extended and advanced applications. Consequently, the amount of different materials converted to nanocrystal-based gel structures is rising steadily. Meanwhile the number of methods for assembly initiation is likewise increasing, offering control over the overall network structure and porosity as well as the individual nanocrystal building block connection. The resulting networks can be dried by different methods to obtain highly porous air-filled networks (aerogels) or applied in their wet form (solvogels). By now a number of different applications profiting from the unique advantages of nanocrystal-based gel materials have been realized and exploited in the areas of photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and sensing.

In this Account, we aim to summarize the efforts undertaken in the structuring of nanocrystal-based network materials on different scales, fine-tuning of the individual building blocks on the nanoscale, the network connections on the microscale, and the macroscale structure and shape of the final construct. It is exemplarily demonstrated how cation exchange reactions (at the nanoscale), postgelation modifications on the nanocrystal networks (microscale), and the structuring of the gels via printing techniques (macroscale) endow the resulting nanocrystal gel networks with novel physicochemical, mechanical, and electrocatalytic properties. The methods applied in the more traditional sol–gel chemistry targeting micro- and macroscale structuring are also reviewed, showing their future potential promoting the field of nanocrystal-based aerogels and their applications.

Gelation of plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystals by polymer-induced depletion attractions

Gelation of colloidal nanocrystals emerged as a strategy to preserve inherent nanoscale properties in multiscale architectures. However, available gelation methods to directly form self-supported nanocrystal networks struggle to reliably control nanoscale optical phenomena such as photoluminescence and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) across nanocrystal systems due to processing variabilities. Here, we report on an alternative gelation method based on physical internanocrystal interactions: short-range depletion attractions balanced by long-range electrostatic repulsions. The latter are established by removing the native organic ligands that passivate tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanocrystals while the former are introduced by mixing with small PEG chains. As we incorporate increasing concentrations of PEG, we observe a reentrant phase behavior featuring two favorable gelation windows; the first arises from bridging effects while the second is attributed to depletion attractions according to phase behavior predicted by our unified theoretical model. Our assembled nanocrystals remain discrete within the gel network, based on X-ray scattering and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The infrared optical response of the gels is reflective of both the nanocrystal building blocks and the network architecture, being characteristic of ITO nanocrystals' LSPR with coupling interactions between neighboring nanocrystals.

Nano-Sized Structurally Disordered Metal Oxide Composite Aerogels as High-Power Anodes in Hybrid Supercapacitors

A general method for preparing nano-sized metal oxide nanoparticles with highly disordered crystal structure and their processing into stable aqueous dispersions is presented. With these nanoparticles as building blocks, a series of nanoparticles@reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite aerogels are fabricated and directly used as high-power anodes for lithium-ion hybrid supercapacitors (Li-HSCs). To clarify the effect of the degree of disorder, control samples of crystalline nanoparticles with similar particle size are prepared. The results indicate that the structurally disordered samples show a significantly enhanced electrochemical performance compared to the crystalline counterparts. In particular, structurally disordered Ni _xFe _yO _z@rGO delivers a capacity of 388 mAh g^-1 at 5 A g^-1, which is 6 times that of the crystalline sample. Disordered Ni _xFe _yO _z@rGO is taken as an example to study the reasons for the enhanced performance. Compared with the crystalline sample, density functional theory calculations reveal a smaller volume expansion during Li⁺ insertion for the structurally disordered Ni _xFe _yO _z nanoparticles, and they are found to exhibit larger pseudocapacitive effects. Combined with an activated carbon (AC) cathode, full-cell tests of the lithium-ion hybrid supercapacitors are performed, demonstrating that the structurally disordered metal oxide nanoparticles@rGO||AC hybrid systems deliver high energy and power densities within the voltage range of 1.0-4.0 V. These results indicate that structurally disordered nanomaterials might be interesting candidates for exploring high-power anodes for Li-HSCs.