Nanocellulose-Assisted Formation of Porous Hematite Nanostructures

作者：Ivanova Alesja; Fominykh Ksenia; Fattakhova Rohlfing Dina; Zeller Patrick; Doeblinger Markus; Bein Thomas^*

来源：Inorganic Chemistry, 2015, 54(3): 1129-1135.

DOI：10.1021/ic502446f

We report the formation of porous iron oxide (hematite) nanostructures via sol-gel transformations of molecular precursors in the confined space of self-organized nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) used as a shape-persistent template. The obtained structures are highly porous alpha-Fe2O3 (hematite) morphologies with a well-defined anisotropic porosity. The character of the porous nanostructure depends on the iron salt used as the precursor and the heat treatment. Moreover, a postsynthetic hydrothermal treatment of the NCC/iron salt composites strongly affects the crystal growth as well as the porous nanomorphology of the obtained hematite scaffolds. We demonstrate that the hydrothermal treatment alters the crystallization mechanism of the molecular iron precursors, which proceeds via the formation of anisotropic iron oxyhydroxide species. The nanocellulose templating technique established here enables the straightforward fabrication of a variety of mesoporous crystalline iron oxide scaffolds with defined porous structure and is particularly attractive for the processing of porous hematite films on different substrates

• 出版日期2015-2-2