Northwestern University

Jingshan Du

Chad A Mirkin

Vinayak P Dravid

Pengcheng Chen

Yuan Liu

Qian Rong

Electrocatalytic materials and methods of making the electrocatalytic materials are provided. Such a method may comprise forming precursor nanosheets comprising a precursor metal on a surface of a substrate; exposing the precursor nanosheets to a modifier solution comprising a polar, aprotic solvent and a metal salt at a temperature and for a period of time, the metal salt comprising a metal cation and an anion, thereby forming modified precursor nanosheets; and calcining the modified precursor nanosheets for a period of time to form an electrocatalytic material comprising structurally modified nanosheets and the substrate, each nanosheet extending from the surface of the substrate and having a solid matrix. The solid matrix defines pores distributed throughout the solid matrix and comprises a precursor metal oxide and domains of another metal oxide distributed throughout the precursor metal oxide; or the solid matrix comprises the precursor metal oxide and nanoparticles of the another metal oxide distributed on a surface of the solid matrix.

Structurally modified nanosheets of metal oxides and related methods

A method of preparing a metal nanoparticle can include depositing an ink on a substrate using nanolithography to form a polymer reactor, wherein the ink comprises at least one metalloporphyrin functionalized polymer comprising a metal ion, porphyrin, and a polyethylene oxide polymer; and thermally annealing the polymer nanoreactor under conditions sufficient to form the nanoparticle. The thermal annealing can include a first stage that includes annealing the polymer nanoreactor at a temperature of about 100&#xb0; C. to about 350&#xb0; C. for a time sufficient to aggregate the metal ions in the polymer reactor, and a second stage that includes annealing the aggregated polymer nanoreactor at a temperature of about 500&#xb0; C. to about 600&#xb0; C. for a time sufficient to reduce the metal ion and decompose a polymer component of the polymer nanoreactor to thereby form the metal nanoparticle.

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Evanston, IL, United States of America

Jingshan Du