Issue 18, 2023

Polymer brush-grafted cellulose nanocrystals for the synthesis of porous carbon-coated titania nanocomposites

Abstract

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are a renewable nanomaterials platform. Their characteristic one-dimensional morphology and surface chemistry offer opportunities for the templated synthesis of functional nanorods and nanotubes. Here we report the template-directed fabrication of mesoporous carbon-coated anatase TiO2 nanotubes using polymer brush-grafted CNCs as nanoreactors. The nanoreactors consisted of a CNC core grafted with a poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) shell made by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerisation (SI-ATRP). A water-soluble TiO2 precursor, titanium(IV) bis(ammonium lactato)dihydroxide (TALH), was selectively loaded into the nanoreactor shell via ionic interactions. Pyrolysis of the CNC-g-PDMAEMA/TALH hybrids led to the carbonisation of the polymer template, the removal of the CNC core and the crystallisation of the TALH to produce carbon-coated nanocrystalline anatase. The resulting TiO2/C nanotubes retained ∼50 wt% of TiO2 and ∼13% wt% of carbon, and exhibited a specific surface area of ∼111 m2 g−1. The simultaneously forming carbon framework suppressed the growth of titania crystallites to <5 nm. We further demonstrate the potential of our TiO2/C nanomaterials to produce titania anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Graphical abstract: Polymer brush-grafted cellulose nanocrystals for the synthesis of porous carbon-coated titania nanocomposites

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 feb 2023
Accepted
05 apr 2023
First published
11 apr 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 2181-2189

Polymer brush-grafted cellulose nanocrystals for the synthesis of porous carbon-coated titania nanocomposites

Y. T. Cheng, Q. Xia, H. Liu, M. B. Solomon, C. D. Ling and M. Müllner, Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 2181 DOI: 10.1039/D3PY00194F

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