Versatile synthesis of uniform mesoporous superparticles from stable monomicelle units

Zaiwang Zhao; Pengfei Zhang; Yujuan Zhao; Lipeng Wang; Jie Zhang; Fanxing Bu; Wanhai Zhou; Ruizheng Zhao; Xingmiao Zhang; Zirui Lv; Yupu Liu; Yuan Xia; Wei Zhang; Tiancong Zhao; Dongliang Chao; Wei Li; Dongyuan Zhao

doi:10.1038/s41596-024-01073-0

Versatile synthesis of uniform mesoporous superparticles from stable monomicelle units

Nat Protoc. 2024 Nov 13. doi: 10.1038/s41596-024-01073-0. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zaiwang Zhao¹, Pengfei Zhang², Yujuan Zhao², Lipeng Wang³, Jie Zhang³, Fanxing Bu³, Wanhai Zhou³, Ruizheng Zhao³, Xingmiao Zhang³, Zirui Lv³, Yupu Liu³, Yuan Xia⁴, Wei Zhang³, Tiancong Zhao³, Dongliang Chao³, Wei Li⁵, Dongyuan Zhao^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ College of Energy Materials and Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China. [email protected].
² College of Energy Materials and Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Shiyou University, Xi'an, China.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Materials, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. [email protected].
⁶ College of Energy Materials and Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, China. [email protected].
⁷ College of Chemistry and Materials, Department of Chemistry, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. [email protected].

PMID: 39537994
DOI: 10.1038/s41596-024-01073-0

Abstract

Superstructures with architectural complexity and unique functionalities are promising for a variety of practical applications in many fields, including mechanics, sensing, photonics, catalysis, drug delivery and energy storage/conversion. In the past five years, a number of attempts have been made to build superparticles based on amphiphilic polymeric micelle units, but most have failed owing to their inherent poor stability. Determining how to stabilize micelles and control their superassembly is critical to obtaining the desired mesoporous superparticles. Here we provide a detailed procedure for the preparation of ultrastable polymeric monomicelle building units, the creation of a library of ultrasmall organic-inorganic nanohybrids, the modular superassembly of monomicelles into hierarchical superstructures and creation of novel multilevel mesoporous superstructures. The protocol enables precise control of the number of monomicelle units and the derived mesopores for superparticles. We show that ultrafine nanohybrids display enhanced mechanical antipressure performance compared with pristine polymeric micelles, and describe the functional characterization of mesoporous superstructures that exhibit excellent oxygen reduction reactivity. Except for the time (4.5 d) needed for the preparation of the triblock polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) PS-PVP-PEO or the polystyrene-block-poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-PAA-PEO) copolymer, the synthesis of the ultrastable monomicelle, ultrafine organic-inorganic nanohybrids, hierarchical superstructures and mesoporous superparticles require ~6, 30, 8 and 24 h, respectively. The time needed for all characterizations and applications are 18 and 10 h, respectively.

Publication types

Review