Dual-template engineering of triple-layered nanoarray electrode of metal chalcogenides sandwiched with hydrogen-substituted graphdiyne.

Zhuo, Sifei; Shi, Yusuf; Liu, Lingmei; Li, Renyuan; Shi, Le; Anjum, Dalaver H; Han, Yu; Wang, Peng · Nat Commun · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Hybrid nanostructures integrating electroactive materials with functional species, such as metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, graphdiyne etc., are of significance for both fundamental research and energy conversion/storage applications. Here, hierarchical triple-layered nanotube arrays, which consist of hydrogen-substituted graphdiyne frameworks seamlessly sandwiched between an outer layer of nickel-cobalt co-doped molybdenum disulfide nanosheets and an inner layer of mixed cobalt sulfide and nickel sulfide (Co<sub>9</sub>S<sub>8</sub>/Ni<sub>3</sub>S<sub>2</sub>), are directly fabricated on conductive carbon paper. The elaborate triple-layered structure emerges as a useful hybrid electrode for energy conversion and storage, in which the organic hydrogen-substituted graphdiyne middle layer, with an extended π-conjugated system between the electroactive nanomaterials, provides built-in electron and ion channels that are crucial for performance enhancement. This dual-template synthetic method, which makes use of microporous organic networks to confine a self-template, is shown to be versatile and thus provides a promising platform for advanced nanostructure-engineering of hierarchical multi-layered nanostructures towards a wide range of electrochemical applications.