Synthetic Pathways to ABA and ABC Triblock Copolymer Derived Ordered Mesoporous Niobium Nitrides*

Ordered mesoporous transition metal nitrides are of substantial interest in areas as diverse as catalysis, electrochemical energy conversion and storage, and superconductivity. We developed a route to synthesize such nitrides via a highly tunable route based on high-temperature ammonia treatment of mesostructured oxides derived from ABC poly(isoprene-b-styrene-b-ethylene oxide) triblock terpolymers. Such ABC triblocks are not widely available, however, greatly limiting potential work with mesoporous nitrides. We report pathways to mesoporous niobium nitride based on the commercial Pluronics family of ABA triblock copolymers, a synthetic route previously thought to be impossible due to the small pore wall thicknesses in Pluronics-derived materials and rapid crystallization of the nitride. We expect that the availability of synthetic routes to nitrides using these polymers will allow wider exploration of the impacts of mesoscale order on transition metal nitrides.

Ref.: Discovering Synthesis Routes to Hexagonally Ordered Mesoporous Niobium Nitrides Using Poloxamer/Pluronics Block Copolymers, Chem. Mater. (2017) 10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b03834