Ultrathin Hollow Co/N/C Spheres from Hyper-Crosslinked Polymers by a New Universal Strategy with Boosted ORR...

Porous carbon materials with hollow structure, on account of the extraordinary morphology, reveal fascinating prospects in lithium-ion batteries, electrocatalysis, etc. However, collapse in ultrathin carbon spheres due to insufficient rigidity in such thin materials obstructs further enhanced capability. Based on hyper-crosslinked polymers (HCPs) with sufficient pore structure and rigid framework, a new bottom-up strategy is proposed to construct SiO₂ @HCPs directly from aromatic monomers. Heteroatom and function groups can be facilely introduced to the skeleton. The thickness of HCPs' wall can be tuned from 9 to 20 nm, which is much thinner than that of hollow sphere synthesized by the traditional method, and the sample with a thickness of 20 nm shows the highest surface area of 1633 m² g^-1 . The oxygen reduction reaction is conducted and the CoNHCS electrocatalysts with an ultrathin thickness of 5 nm display higher half-wave potential than those of bulk samples, even better than commercial Pt/C electrode. On account of the hollow structure, the relative current density loss of electrocatalysts is only 4.1% in comparison with 27.7% in Pt/C electrode during the 15 000 s test, indicating an obvious higher long-term stability. The new strategy to construct hollow HCPs may shed light on efficient chemical catalysis, drug delivery, and electrocatalysis.