Hierarchically ordered porous transition metal compounds from one-pot type 3D printing approaches

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Chemistry

Background:

• Solution-based soft matter self-assembly (SA) offers potential for novel material structures via additive manufacturing.
• 3D printing of ordered porous inorganic materials is challenging due to scale-dependent ordering kinetics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable method for 3D printing hierarchically porous functional inorganic materials.
• To investigate the role of block copolymer self-assembly in directing mesostructure formation during printing.
• To explore the properties of resulting materials, particularly their superconducting behavior and surface characteristics.

Main Methods:

• A "one-pot" direct ink writing process utilizing block copolymer self-assembly.
• Controlled heat treatment protocols in various environments to retain mesostructure.
• Embedded printing techniques for creating non-self-supporting structures.

Main Results:

• Successfully produced hierarchically porous transition metal nitrides and oxides with periodic lattices across three length scales.
• Achieved retention of mesostructure in final crystalline materials.
• Demonstrated the first block copolymer-directed mesoporous non-self-supporting helical oxides and nitrides.
• Observed record nanoconfinement-induced upper critical fields in superconducting nitrides, correlated with block copolymer molar mass.
• Obtained record surface areas for compound superconductors.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables scalable formation of porous functional inorganic materials.
• The materials show promise for applications in catalysis, sensing, and microelectronics.
• Nanoconfinement effects significantly enhance superconducting properties.