Sensor CDT student, Tiesheng Wang (王铁胜), found a simple way to transform metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to carbon-base structures with ordered multilevel hierarchy, termed as “nano-diatom” (named for the morphological similarities with the naturally existing diatomaceous species). The metamorphosis is enabled by adding salts (metal-containing compounds) into the MOF followed by a high-temperature carbonisation process.
Tiesheng is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr Stoyan Smoukov and Dr R Vasant Kumar, and working closely with Professor Anthony Cheetham. Together with Dr Hyun-Kyung Kim, they have demonstrated one of the nano-diatoms as a superior carbon-based anode material for fast-charging lithium-ion battery. They published their work in JACS (Journal of the American Chemical Society) recently: http://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.8b02411
In the paper, Tiesheng and his collaborators from University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London and Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research proved that the transformation can be controlled by the initial chemical composition (i.e. MOF and metal-containing compound used). They also realized that the discovery can be applied as a working strategy for functionalizing the carbon not only for energy storage but also for catalysis and chemical sensing. Tiesheng, Stoyan and Hyun-Kyung have filed a relevant patent.
Since there are thousands of MOF and metal-containing compounds available, the discovery and its following work on understanding the formation mechanisms will enable the design of future carbon-based functional materials. The work is highlighted in the following press release:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/qmuo-sdh051418.php
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-salt-battery.html
‘Bottom-up Formation of Carbon-Based Structures with Multilevel Hierarchy from MOF−Guest Polyhedra’. Tiesheng Wang, Hyun-Kyung Kim, Yingjun Liu, Weiwei Li, James T Griffiths, Yue Wu, Sourav Laha, Kara D Fong, Filip Podjaski, Chao Yun, R Vasant Kumar, Bettina V Lotsch, Anthony K Cheetham and Stoyan K Smoukov*. Journal of the American Chemical Society, ASAP