A facile one-pot synthesis of block copolymer-directed mesoporous titanium oxynitride

Abstract

Metal nitride is used in a wide variety of applications due to its unique material properties. In particular, mesoporous titanium nitride has the potential to improve green energy technologies such as supercapacitor, fuel cell, chemical catalysts, and hydrogen gas storage. Here we report a facile method to synthesize mesoporous titanium nitride materials by mixing structure directing block copolymer (F127), titanium sol precursors, and urea-based oligomers. Short-range ordered hybrid materials were synthesized the from self-assembly of mixtures F127 polymer (poly-(ethyleneoxide)-block-poly(propyleneoxide)-block-poly(ethyleneoxide)), titanium-citrate complexes, and urea-formaldehyde oligomers. The hybrids composites converted to mesoporous polymer-titanium oxynitride composite by pyrolysis treatment under nitrogen at 800°C. A second heat treatment in air at 350 °C further remove most of the remaining polymer residue from the final mesoporous titanium oxynitride composite.