Hollow Bio-derived Polymer Nanospheres with Ordered Mesopores for Sodium-Ion Battery

• Published in: Nano-micro letters Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 31
• Main Authors: Ai, Yan, You, Yuxiu, Wei, Facai, Jiang, Xiaolin, Han, Zhuolei, Cui, Jing, Luo, Hao, Li, Yucen, Xu, Zhixin, Xu, Shunqi, Yang, Jun, Bao, Qinye, Jing, Chengbin, Fu, Jianwei, Cheng, Jiangong, Liu, Shaohua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01-01-2020; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Anodes; Architecture; Biomimetic synthesis; Biomimetics; Channels; Complexity; Coordination; Electrochemical analysis; Electrode materials; Engineering; Ferric phytate; Mesoporous polymer; Micelles; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanospheres; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Organic chemistry; Phytic acid; Polymerization; Polymers; Rechargeable batteries; Self-assembly; Sodium-ion batteries; Sodium-ion battery; Surface area; Self-assembly; Mesoporous polymer; Sodium-ion battery; Biomimetic synthesis; Ferric phytate
• ISSN: 2311-6706; 2150-5551
• DOI: 10.1007/s40820-020-0370-1

Highlights
A novel coordination polymerization-driven hierarchical assembly approach for spatially controlled fabrication of phytic acid-based bio-derivatives was developed.
The resultant ferric phytate bio-derived polymer featured hollow nanosphere architecture, ordered meso-channels, high surface area, and large pore volume, as anode material, delivering a remarkable electrochemical performance.
Bio-inspired hierarchical self-assembly provides elegant and powerful bottom-up strategies for the creation of complex materials. However, the current self-assembly approaches for natural bio-compounds often result in materials with limited diversity and complexity in architecture as well as microstructure. Here, we develop a novel coordination polymerization-driven hierarchical assembly of micelle strategy, using phytic acid-based natural compounds as an example, for the spatially controlled fabrication of metal coordination bio-derived polymers. The resultant ferric phytate polymer nanospheres feature hollow architecture, ordered meso-channels of ~ 12 nm, high surface area of 401 m
2
 g
−1
, and large pore volume of 0.53 cm
3
 g
−1
. As an advanced anode material, this bio-derivative polymer delivers a remarkable reversible capacity of 540 mAh g
−1
at 50 mA g
−1
, good rate capability, and cycling stability for sodium-ion batteries. This study holds great potential of the design of new complex bio-materials with supramolecular chemistry.