Mesoporous Titanium Oxynitride Monoliths from Block Copolymer-Directed Self-Assembly of Metal–Urea Additives

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01729
• Publication Date: 2020-08-13T11:24:44Z
• Authors: Yun Li; Raymond Horia; Wei Xin Tan; Nathawat Larbaram; Wardhana A. Sasangka; William Manalastas; Srinivasan Madhavi; Kwan W. Tan
• Keywords: Engineering::Materials::Nanostructured materials; 670; Engineering::Materials::Energy materials; Water Splitting; 02 engineering and technology; :Materials::Energy materials [Engineering]; 0210 nano-technology; :Materials::Nanostructured materials [Engineering]; Nitrides

This report describes a simple one-pot soft-templating and ammonolysis-free approach to synthesize mesoporous crystalline titanium oxynitride by combining block copolymer-directed self-assembly with metal sol urea precursors. The Pluronic F127 triblock copolymer was employed structure-direct titanium-oxo-acetate nanoparticles urea-formaldehyde into ordered hybrid mesostructured monoliths. composites were directly converted retained macroscale monolithic integrity up 800 °C under nitrogen. Notably, the additive provided nitrogen rigid support inorganic mesostructure during crystallization. resultant exhibited good electrochemical catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction in 1 M KOH aqueous medium applied bias. Our results suggest an inexpensive safe pathway generate structures suitable for catalyst energy-storage applications.