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Nano Research 2023, 16(1): 1733-1739 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4776-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 10 August 2022

Surface group directed low-temperature synthesis and self-assembly of Al nanostructures for lithium storage

Show Author's Information Xianglong Kong1,§,  Zhi Li1,§,  Xudong Zhao1,§,  Shunpeng Chen2,  Zhuoyan Wu3,  Fei He1( ),  Piaoping Yang1,  Xinghua Chang4,  Xingguo Li2,  Zhiliang Liu1( ),  Jie Zheng2( )
College of Material Sciences and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Comprehensive Energy Research Center, Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China
Key Laboratory for Mineral Materials and Application of Hunan Province, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

§ Xianglong Kong, Zhi Li, and Xudong Zhao contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
self-assembly, lithium storage, low-temperature synthesis, Al nanostructure, surface group
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Synthesis
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Kong X, Li Z, Zhao X, et al. Surface group directed low-temperature synthesis and self-assembly of Al nanostructures for lithium storage. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 1733-1739. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4776-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Nanostructured aluminum recently delivers a variety of new applications of the earth-abundant Al resource due to the unique properties, but its controllable synthesis remains very challenging with harsh conditions and spontaneously flammable precursors. Herein, a surface group directed method is developed to efficiently achieve low-temperature synthesis and self-assembly of zero-dimensional (0D) Al nanocrystals over one-dimensional (1D) carbon fibers (Al@CFs) through non-flammable AlCl3 reduction at 70 °C. Theoretical calculations unveil surface ‒OLi groups of carbon fibers exert efficient binding effect to AlCl3, which guides intimate adsorption and in-situ self-assembly of the generated Al nanocrystals. The distinctive 0D-over-1D Al@CFs provides long 1D conductive networks for electron transfer, ultrafine 0D Al nanocrystals for fast lithiation and excellent buffering effect for volume change, thus exhibiting high structure stability and superior lithium storage performance. This work paves the way for mild and controllable synthesis of Al-based nanomaterials for new high-value applications.


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About this article

Surface group directed low-temperature synthesis and self-assembly of Al nanostructures for lithium storage

Show Author's information Xianglong Kong1,§, Zhi Li1,§, Xudong Zhao1,§, Shunpeng Chen2, Zhuoyan Wu3, Fei He1( ), Piaoping Yang1, Xinghua Chang4, Xingguo Li2, Zhiliang Liu1( ), Jie Zheng2( )
College of Material Sciences and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Comprehensive Energy Research Center, Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China
Key Laboratory for Mineral Materials and Application of Hunan Province, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

§ Xianglong Kong, Zhi Li, and Xudong Zhao contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Nanostructured aluminum recently delivers a variety of new applications of the earth-abundant Al resource due to the unique properties, but its controllable synthesis remains very challenging with harsh conditions and spontaneously flammable precursors. Herein, a surface group directed method is developed to efficiently achieve low-temperature synthesis and self-assembly of zero-dimensional (0D) Al nanocrystals over one-dimensional (1D) carbon fibers (Al@CFs) through non-flammable AlCl3 reduction at 70 °C. Theoretical calculations unveil surface ‒OLi groups of carbon fibers exert efficient binding effect to AlCl3, which guides intimate adsorption and in-situ self-assembly of the generated Al nanocrystals. The distinctive 0D-over-1D Al@CFs provides long 1D conductive networks for electron transfer, ultrafine 0D Al nanocrystals for fast lithiation and excellent buffering effect for volume change, thus exhibiting high structure stability and superior lithium storage performance. This work paves the way for mild and controllable synthesis of Al-based nanomaterials for new high-value applications.

Keywords: self-assembly, lithium storage, low-temperature synthesis, Al nanostructure, surface group

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 May 2022
Revised: 13 July 2022
Accepted: 14 July 2022
Published: 10 August 2022
Issue date: January 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22101065 and 51972075), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (No. YQ2021B001), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2020M681075), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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