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Author: Zhang, En × Type: Article ×

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    Polymer Brushes on Graphitic Carbon Nitride for Patterning and as a SERS Active Sensing Layer via Incorporated Nanoparticles
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 2020) Sheng, Wenbo; Li, Wei; Tan, Deming; Zhang, Panpan; Zhang, En; Sheremet, Evgeniya; Schmidt, Bernhard V.K.J.; Feng, Xinliang; Rodriguez, Raul D.; Jordan, Rainer; Amin, Ihsan
    Graphitic carbon nitride (gCN) has a broad range of promising applications, from energy harvesting and storage to sensing. However, most of the applications are still restricted due to gCN poor dispersibility and limited functional groups. Herein, a direct photografting of gCN using various polymer brushes with tailorable functionalities via UV photopolymerization at ambient conditions is demonstrated. The systematic study of polymer brush-functionalized gCN reveals that the polymerization did not alter the inherent structure of gCN. Compared to the pristine gCN, the gCN-polymer composites show good dispersibility in various solvents such as water, ethanol, and tetrahydrofuran (THF). Patterned polymer brushes on gCN can be realized by employing photomask and microcontact printing technology. The polymer brushes with incorporated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on gCN can act as a multifunctional recyclable active sensing layer for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection and photocatalysis. This multifunctionality is shown in consecutive cycles of SERS and photocatalytic degradation processes that can be applied to in situ monitor pollutants, such as dyes or pharmaceutical waste, with high chemical sensitivity as well as to water remediation. This dual functionality provides a significant advantage to our AgNPs/polymer-gCN with regard to state-of-the-art systems reported so far that only allow SERS pollutant detection but not their decomposition. These results may provide a new methodology for the covalent functionalization of gCN and may enable new applications in the field of catalysis, biosensors, and, most interestingly, environmental remediation. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
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    Glassy Metal–Organic-Framework-Based Quasi-Solid-State Electrolyte for High-Performance Lithium-Metal Batteries
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Jiang, Guangshen; Qu, Changzhen; Xu, Fei; Zhang, En; Lu, Qiongqiong; Cai, Xiaoru; Hausdorf, Steffen; Wang, Hongqiang; Kaskel, Stefan
    Enhancing ionic conductivity of quasi-solid-state electrolytes (QSSEs) is one of the top priorities, while conventional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) severely impede ion migration due to their abundant grain boundaries. Herein, ZIF-4 glass, a subset of MOFs, is reported as QSSEs (LGZ) for lithium-metal batteries. With lean Li content (0.12 wt%) and solvent amount (19.4 wt%), LGZ can achieve a remarkable ion conductivity of 1.61 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 30 °C, higher than those of crystalline ZIF-4-based QSSEs (LCZ, 8.21 × 10−5 S cm−1) and the reported QSSEs containing high Li contents (0.32–5.4 wt%) and huge plasticizer (30–70 wt%). Even at −56.6 °C, LGZ can still deliver a conductivity of 5.96 × 10−6 S cm−1 (vs 4.51 × 10−7 S cm−1 for LCZ). Owing to the grain boundary-free and isotropic properties of glassy ZIF-4, the facilitated ion conduction enables a homogeneous ion flux, suppressing Li dendrites. When paired with LiFePO4 cathode, LGZ cell demonstrates a prominent cycling capacity of 101 mAh g−1 for 500 cycles at 1 C with the near-utility retention, outperforming LCZ (30.7 mAh g−1) and the explored MOF-/covalent–organic frameworks (COF)-based QSSEs. Hence, MOF glasses will be a potential platform for practical quasi-solid-state batteries in the future. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH