General Self-Template Synthesis of Transition-Metal Oxide and Chalcogenide Mesoporous Nanotubes with Enhanced Electrochemical Performances

The development of a general strategy for synthesizing hierarchical porous transition-metal oxide and chalcogenide mesoporous nanotubes, is still highly challenging. Herein we present a facile self-template strategy to synthesize Co3O4 mesoporous nanotubes with outstanding performances in both the electrocatalytic oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) and Li-ion battery via the thermal-oxidation-induced transformation of cheap and easily-prepared Co-Asp(cobalt-aspartic acid) nanowires. The initially formed thin layers on the precursor surfaces, oxygen-induced outward diffusion of interior precursors, the gas release of organic oxidation, and subsequent Kirkendall effect are important for the appearance of the mesoporous nanotubes. This self-template strategy of low-cost precursors is found to be a versatile method to prepare other functional mesoporous nanotubes of transition-metal oxides and chalcogenides, such as NiO, NiCo2O4, Mn5O8, CoS2 and CoSe2.