Solid ion transition route to 3D S-N-codoped hollow carbon nanosphere/graphene aerogel as a metal-free handheld nanocatalyst for organic reactions

• Published in: Nano research Vol. 10; no. 10; pp. 3486 - 3495
• Main Authors: Pan, Jing, Song, Shuyan, Li, Junqi, Wang, Fan, Ge, Xin, Yao, Shuang, Wang, Xiao, Zhang, Hongjie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01-10-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aerogels; Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Carbon; Carbon sources; Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemical reduction; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Graphene; Materials Science; Nanocatalysis; Nanospheres; Nanotechnology; Research Article; Zinc sulfide; 有机反应; 气凝胶; 氧化石墨; 碳源; 空心; 纳米催化剂; 纳米球; 金属体; graphene aerogel; bulk nanocatalyst; solid ion transition; S–N-codoped; metal-free
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-017-1560-0

A novel metal-free bulk nanocatalyst, S--N-codoped hollow carbon nanosphere/ graphene aerogel （SNC-GA-1000）, has been successfully fabricated using a facile and clean solid ion transition route. In this method, ZnS is used as the hard template and S source, while polydopamine acts as a reducing agent and carbon source. At a high annealing temperature, Zn metal is reduced and evaporates, leaving only free S vapor to diffuse into the carbon layer. Interestingly, the as-obtained SNC-GA-1000 exhibits much higher catalytic activity in an organic reduction reaction than unloaded bare S--N-codoped carbon nanospheres. Hydrothermal reduction of the graphene oxide sheets loaded with ZnSC@olydopamine core-shell nanospheres （ZnS@PDA） affords a three-dimensional bulk graphene aerogel. Although nanosized catalysts exhibit high catalytic activities, their subsequent separation is not always satisfactory, making post-treatment difficult. This approach achieves a trade-off between activity and separability. More importantly, due to the 3D structural nature, such bulk and handheld nanocatalysts can be easily separated and recycled.