A Family of Mesocubes

作者：Addu Sai Karthik; Zhu Jian; Ng K Y Simon; Deng Da^*

来源：Chemistry of Materials, 2014, 26(15): 4472-4485.

DOI：10.1021/cm501580y

It is challenging to develop a general universal procedure to fabricate mesoscale cubic structures on a large scale with different nanoscale building units. It is always desirable to tune the chemical compositions within confined arrangements without damaging the mesostructures to provide the desired physiochemical properties required by various devices/applications. Herein, we report the successful design and facile preparation of a family of mesocubes with different compositions, including (a) ZnSn(OH)(6), (b) evenly distributed Zn2SnO4 and SnO2 nanoparticles, (c) hollow cubes of SnO2 nanoparticles, (d) high-ordered nanoparticles of Zn2SnO4 & Sn@C; (e) SnO2@C core-shell subunits, (f) SnO2@C nanoparticle aggregates enclosed with oxidized carbon sheath, and (g) C nanobubbles, as building units, all, except ZnSn(OH)(6), with the same confined arrangements of nanoparticles as building units inside the same framework of cubic mesostructures. This family of mesocubes will provide a rich pool of materials with different functional properties to meet demands in different applications and offer opportunities to evaluate fundamentals of structure-property-performance relationships. On the basis of the best of our knowledge, this family of facilely prepared mesocubes with unique combination of microsize cubes and compositions was reported for the first time, especially the carbon mesocubes formed by aggregation of carbon nanobubbles as the building subunits. Additionally, we demonstrated, for the first time, that two family members of mesocubes of Zn2SnO4&SnO2 and Zn2SnO4&Sn@C can be used as anode materials in lithium ion batteries with impressive high packing densities and superior rate performance.

• 出版日期2014-8-12