Designing Transition Metal/Polymer Nanocomposite Derived Macroscopic Carbon Fiber Towards Highly Stable Catalysis

Abstract

In recent times, inorganic nanoparticle/polymer composites have generated considerable recent research interest, and their structure, composition design, and properties have been discussed in multitudinous catalysis studies because of their significant enhancement of stability and catalytic performance compared to homogeneous catalysts. Transition Metal/Polymer nanocomposite fiber holds great promise in catalysis science field including electrocatalysis, organic catalysis academia, and industry due to their high producibility with cost efficiency, easy separation from target molecule, large surface areas, a substantial number of surface metal atoms leading to abundant active sites, flexibilities. Various chemical or physical activation of the macroscopic fiber with strong oxidants/acids/alkalis/salts or gases, plasma, UV lights were carried with various metal supporting methods, and nanofiber synthesis has been made to increase the surface area of fibrous catalysts. However, the preparation of catalysts with uniformity, high mechanical property, and productivity on a large scale has not been clearly presented. Herein, we report a simple fabrication approach of macroscopic carbon fiber which can further be applied as carbon cloth form of transition metal/polymer nanocomposite via spinning of polyacrylonitrile, polyacrylonitrile/sacrificial polymer blend fiber matrix with transition metals. The design of the catalytic active sites, adhesion, the morphology of the carbon matrix and metal particle fillers, mechanical properties by controlling the composition and heat treatment will be discussed.