Issue 9, 2016

A covalent organic framework-based route to the in situ encapsulation of metal nanoparticles in N-rich hollow carbon spheres

Abstract

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated in hollow nanostructures hold great promise for a variety of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a new concept where covalent organic frameworks (COFs) doped with metal cations can be readily used as novel precursors for the in situ encapsulation of metal NPs into N doped hollow carbon spheres (NHCS) through a controlled carbonization process. The obtained Pd@NHCS composites show a significantly enhanced catalytic activity and selectivity in the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene in ethanol and oxidation of cinnamyl alcohol compared with that of the conventional Pd/N–C and commercial Pd/C catalysts. The excellent catalytic performance should be related to the synergism of the porous hollow spheric structure, highly dispersed Pd NPs, and uniform distribution of N dopants on the materials. We believe that this newly developed methodology could be extended to the synthesis of other metal NPs@NHCS composites for a variety of advanced applications.

Graphical abstract: A covalent organic framework-based route to the in situ encapsulation of metal nanoparticles in N-rich hollow carbon spheres

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
14 Apr 2016
Accepted
31 May 2016
First published
31 May 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6015-6020

A covalent organic framework-based route to the in situ encapsulation of metal nanoparticles in N-rich hollow carbon spheres

L. Chen, L. Zhang, Z. Chen, H. Liu, R. Luque and Y. Li, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6015 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC01659F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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