Hollow carbon nanobubbles: Monocrystalline MOF nanobubbles and their pyrolysis

© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. While bulk-sized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) face limits to their utilization in various research fields such as energy storage applications, nanoarchitectonics is believed to be a possible solution. It is highly challenging to realize MOF nanobubbles with...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhang, W., Jiang, X., Zhao, Y., Carné-Sánchez, A., Malgras, V., Kim, J., Wang, Shaobin, Liu, Jian, Jiang, J., Yamauchi, Y., Hu, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/55235
Description
Summary:© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. While bulk-sized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) face limits to their utilization in various research fields such as energy storage applications, nanoarchitectonics is believed to be a possible solution. It is highly challenging to realize MOF nanobubbles with monocrystalline frameworks. By a spatially controlled etching approach, here, we can achieve the synthesis of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) nanobubbles with a uniform size of less than 100 nm. Interestingly, the ZIF-8 nanobubbles possess a monocrystalline nanoshell with a thickness of around 10 nm. Under optimal pyrolytic conditions, the ZIF-8 nanobubbles can be converted into hollow carbon nanobubbles while keeping their original shapes. The structure of the nanobubble enhances the fast Na + /K + ion intercalation performance. Such remarkable improvement cannot be realized by conventional MOFs or their derived carbons.