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

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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.

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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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Author notes

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

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Sciences and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, China

    Xianglong Kong, Zhi Li, Xudong Zhao, Fei He, Piaoping Yang & Zhiliang Liu

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Shunpeng Chen, Xingguo Li & Jie Zheng

  3. Comprehensive Energy Research Center, Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing, 100038, China

    Zhuoyan Wu

  4. Key Laboratory for Mineral Materials and Application of Hunan Province, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Xinghua Chang

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  1. Xianglong Kong
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Correspondence to Fei He, Zhiliang Liu or Jie Zheng.

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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 Res. 16, 1733–1739 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4776-6

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