Graphene‐Like Hydrogen‐Bonded Melamine–Cyanuric Acid Supramolecular Nanosheets as Pseudo‐Porous Catalyst Support

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 33; no. 22; pp. e2007368 - n/a
• Main Authors: Wu, Jun‐Xi, Bag, Partha Pratim, Xu, Yan‐Tong, Gong, Li, He, Chun‐Ting, Chen, Xiao‐Ming, Zhang, Jie‐Peng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-06-2021
• Subjects: catalyst supports; Catalysts; Covalent bonds; Crystal defects; Cyanuric acid; Dynamic stability; Graphene; Hydrogen; hydrogen bonding; Hydrogen evolution; hydrogen evolution reaction; Materials science; Melamine; Modulators; Nanoparticles; Nanosheets; Phosphides; Photoelectrons; Spectrum analysis; Thickness; Ultrasonic processing; ultrathin nanosheets; ultrathin nanosheets; hydrogen bonding; catalyst supports; nanoparticles; hydrogen evolution reaction
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202007368

Behaving as structural protectors and electronic modulators, catalyst supports such as graphene derivatives are generally constructed by covalent bonds. Here, hydrogen‐bonded ultrathin nanosheets are reported as a new type of catalyst support. Melamine (M) and cyanuric acid (CA) molecules self‐assemble to form the graphite‐like hydrogen‐bonded co‐crystal M‐CA, which can be easily exfoliated by ultrasonic treatment to yield ultrathin nanosheets with thickness of ≈1.6 nm and high stability at pH = 0. The dynamic nanosheets form adaptive defects/pores in the synthetic process of CoP nanoparticles, giving embedded composite with high hydrogen evolution activity (overpotential of 66 mV at 10 mA cm−2) and stability. Computational calculations, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy unveil the electron modulation effects of the nanosheets. This pseudo‐porous catalyst support also can be applied to other metal phosphides.
A hydrogen‐bonded supramolecular network consisting of melamine and cyanuric acid is fabricated as ultrathin nanosheets with extraordinary stability at pH = 0, serving as a pseudo‐porous catalyst support to simultaneously give remarkable enhancement in the catalytic stability and activity of metal phosphides for the hydrogen evolution reaction in strong acidic conditions.