The Functional Chameleon of Materials Chemistry-Combining Carbon Structures into All-Carbon Hybrid Nanomaterials with Intrinsic Porosity to Overcome the "Functionality-Conductivity-Dilemma" in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Electrocatalysis

Small. 2021 May;17(19):e2007508. doi: 10.1002/smll.202007508. Epub 2021 Mar 27.

Abstract

Nanoporous carbon materials can cover a remarkably wide range of physicochemical properties. They are widely applied in electrochemical energy storage and electrocatalysis. As a matter of fact, all these applications combine a chemical process at the electrode-electrolyte interface with the transport (and possibly the transfer) of electrons. This leads to multiple requirements which can hardly be fulfilled by one and the same material. This "functionality-conductivity-dilemma" can be minimized when multiple carbon-based compounds are combined into porous all-carbon hybrid nanomaterials. This article is giving a broad and general perspective on this approach from the viewpoint of materials chemists. The problem and existing solutions are first summarized. This is followed by an overview of the most important design principles for such porous materials, a chapter discussing recent examples from different fields where the formation of comparable structures has already been successfully applied, and an outlook over the future development of this field that is foreseen.

Keywords: carbon nanomaterials; electrochemical energy storage and energy conversion; hybrid materials; nanoconfinement; porous materials.