Pyrrole-Terminated Ionic Liquid Surfactant: One Molecule with Multiple Functions for Controlled Synthesis of Diverse Multispecies Co-Doped Porous Hollow Carbon Spheres

Guanidinium-Based Polymerizable Surfactant as a Multifunctional Molecule for Controlled Synthesis of Nanostructured Materials with Tunable Morphologies

Rationally and efficiently controlling the morphology of nanomaterials plays a crucial role in significantly enhancing their functional properties and expending their applications. In this work, a strategy for controlled synthesis of diverse nanostructured materials with tunable morphologies was developed using a guanidinium-based surfactant with a polymerizable pyrrole unit as a multifunctional molecule that can serve not only as a structure-directing agent for mesostucture formation but also as a monomer and carbon source. The unique self-assembly behavior of the guanidinium head group under different conditions allows the synthesized surfactants to form different aggregates and thus to produce silica nanomaterials with multiple morphologies (such as sphere, disk, fiber, and cocoon) in conjunction with sol-gel chemistry. Besides the mesostructured silicates, by further exploring the polymerization and carbonization features of pyrrole units that were densely packed in the formed silica nanochannels, diverse nanostructured materials such as mesostructured conducting polymers, carbon materials, and metal-nanoparticle (NP)-decorated forms could also be easily obtained in one-pot fashion for various applications, such as energy storage and catalysis. As a demonstration, carbon nanotubes and Pd-NP-doped hollow carbon spheres were fabricated, which exhibited good specific capacitance (101.7 F g^-1) at the scan rates of 5 mV s^-1 and excellent catalytic performance (100% conversion for three cycles) in the Suzuki C-C coupling reaction, respectively. All of the results indicate that our strategy may open a new avenue for efficiently accessing diverse nanostructured materials with tunable morphologies for wide applications.

Application of Ionic Liquids to Energy Storage and Conversion Materials and Devices

Ionic liquids (ILs) are liquids consisting entirely of ions and can be further defined as molten salts having melting points lower than 100 °C. One of the most important research areas for IL utilization is undoubtedly their energy application, especially for energy storage and conversion materials and devices, because there is a continuously increasing demand for clean and sustainable energy. In this article, various application of ILs are reviewed by focusing on their use as electrolyte materials for Li/Na ion batteries, Li-sulfur batteries, Li-oxygen batteries, and nonhumidified fuel cells and as carbon precursors for electrode catalysts of fuel cells and electrode materials for batteries and supercapacitors. Due to their characteristic properties such as nonvolatility, high thermal stability, and high ionic conductivity, ILs appear to meet the rigorous demands/criteria of these various applications. However, for further development, specific applications for which these characteristic properties become unique (i.e., not easily achieved by other materials) must be explored. Thus, through strong demands for research and consideration of ILs unique properties, we will be able to identify indispensable applications for ILs.