Pressure-induced monolithic carbon aerogel from metal-organic framework

Abstract

Three-dimensional carbon aerogels are attracting considerable attention because of their extraordinary fascinating features in terms of good electrical conductivity, large surface area, high porosity and good mechanical performance, which lead to a wide range of important potential applications. The thermal transformation of metal-organic framework (MOF) precursors is promising for the preparation of carbon materials. However, the resulting morphology of MOF-derived carbon has been largely determined by parent MOFs. Here, we present a self-templated and crosslinkers-free strategy for the synthesis of functionalized carbon aerogel with a highest surface area of 1916 m2/g (pore volume around 5.19 ​cc/g) by versatile mechanical pressure and post-thermal transformation of parent MOFs, which break the dimensional limitation of MOF-derived carbon. The relationship between the structural transformation of MOFs precursors under the mechanical pressure and the variation of carbon materials in morphologies after post thermal transformation are investigated as well. As a carbon host matrix, pressure-induced monolithic carbon aerogels from MOFs were beneficial to load SnO2 nanoparticles and these composites exhibit excellent capacities of 1420.7 ​mAh/g at 0.2 A/g and 850.5 ​mAh/g at 1 A/g, and outstanding rate capacity (514 ​mAh/g at even 5 A/g) for the lithium ion storage. Therefore, the excellent performance of these MOFs-derived carbon aerogels demonstrates that this synthetic approach can produce functional matrix materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs).