Preparation of macroporous transition metal hydroxide monoliths via a sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation

Fu Liu,Xingzhong Guo,Hui Yang,Daoyan Feng

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-61195-9

Fu Liu, Xingzhong Guo + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61195-9

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Mar 9, 2020
Citations: 9	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Zhejiang University

Abstract

Three-dimensional transition metal hydroxide monoliths were facilely fabricated by a sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and propylene oxide (PO). In the typical ZnCl2-PAA-PO system, PAA is used as a phase separation inducer as well as a framework former to control the phase separation and the formation of macrostructures, whereas PO works as a proton scavenger to initiate the gelation of the system and freeze the macrostructures. Appropriate amount of PAA, PO and solvents allow the formation of zinc (Zn) hydroxide monolith with cocontinuous skeletons and interconnected macropores, and the construction mechanism and characteristics of macrostructure are also investigated. The resultant dried gels are amorphous Zn hydroxide monolith with a narrow macropore size distribution (~1 μm). This approach is further used to successfully prepare macroporous single or binary composite transition metal hydroxide monoliths.

Highlights

Three-dimensional transition metal hydroxide monoliths were facilely fabricated by a sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and propylene oxide (PO)
Transition metal oxide monoliths with macroporous structure have been realized successfully in several species using a sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation[8,9,10]
We report a facile preparation of transition metal hydroxide monoliths using epoxide-induced sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation

Summary

Introduction

Three-dimensional transition metal hydroxide monoliths were facilely fabricated by a sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation in the presence of polyacrylic acid (PAA) and propylene oxide (PO). We report a facile preparation of transition metal hydroxide monoliths using epoxide-induced sol-gel process accompanied by phase separation.

Results

Conclusion