Controlled fabrication of superelastic 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges and metal composites

由纳米结构催化剂和载体组成的金属化材料在催化、电子器件和生物工程等领域有着广泛的技术应用。然而，目前金属化材料的催化活性和使用寿命不能同时满足环境和能源领域对高性能催化剂的迫切需求。最近，中德研究人员制备了具有一定催化活性的金属化陶瓷纳米纤维，但金属的稳定性和均匀性不能满足实际应用的要求。因此，本项目将重点研究金属化三维陶瓷纳米纤维海绵的可控制备及其应用。本项目的研究工作分为三个方面。首先，研究结构可控的三维陶瓷纳米纤维海绵的制备方法。然后，研究三维陶瓷纳米纤维海绵表面均匀稳定加载金属的策略。最后，我们将展示金属化三维陶瓷纳米纤维海绵的结构与其应用性能之间的相关性。由此可获得孔隙率>为95%，弹性变形>为60%，金属载荷>为20mg g-1的金属化三维陶瓷纳米纤维海绵，并将探索其在催化、甲醇燃料电池电极等各个领域的实际应用。该项目的成果将是对一类具有高度实际应用相关性的新型纳米复合材料的基础知识。这一成果只有通过Yu和Greiner小组的密切合作才能实现，他们在该领域拥有出色的协同专业知识，并在过去记录了合作。

The metallized materials composed of nanostructured catalysts and carriers have broad technological application in wide areas ranging from catalysis and electrical devices to bioengineering. However, the catalytic activity and usage life of current metallized materials cannot simultaneously satisfy the urgent demands for high-performance catalysts in environmental and energy fields. Recently, the Sino-German researchers have prepared the metallized ceramic nanofibres with certain catalytic activity, however the stability and uniformity of the metals cannot meet the requirements of practical applications. Therefore, this project will focus on the controllable fabrication of metallized 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges and their applications. The research work of this project falls into three aspects. Firstly, the approaches for fabricating 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges with controllable structure should be developed. Then, the strategy for loading metals uniformly and stably on the surface of 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges should be investigated. Finally, we will demonstrate the relevance between the structure of metallized 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges and their application performance. As a result, the metallized 3D ceramic nanofibrous sponges with porosity > 95%, elastic deformation > 60%, loading amount of metals > 20 mg g-1 should be obtained, and their practical applications in various fields such as catalysis and methanol fuel cell electrodes will be explored. The outcome of this project will be fundamental knowledge of a new class of nanocomposite materials with high relevance to practical applications. This outcome will be possible only by the close collaboration of the Yu and Greiner group who have excellent and synergistic expertise in the field and documented cooperation in the past.