Hard-templated engineering of versatile 2D amorphous metal oxide nanosheets

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have received ever-increasing attention and in-depth exploration in multifarious fields on account of their superior mass transfer ability and abundant catalytic-active sites. Especially, the amorphous 2D nanomaterials feature unique properties distinct from atomic crystalline materials. However, the synthesis of high-quality and large-sized amorphous 2D nanomaterials encounters a big challenge. Here, a general and facile synthetic strategy for a series of 2D amorphous metal and nonmetallic oxides nanosheets, including SiO2, AlOOH, ZrO2 and TiO2 nanosheets, is reported. The versatile 2D amorphous nanomaterials are fabricated via manipulating the surface energy of relevant metal alkoxide precursors with liquid feature and controlling the related synthesis parameters to form solid 2D amorphous nanosheets by in situ hydrolysis and condensation of precursors. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the molecular adsorption mechanism of wetting process of precursor infiltrated on solid NaCl substrate, which attributes to the strong interaction between Na-O atom pairs from NaCl and metal alkoxides respectively. Furthermore, taking the 2D Fe-ZrO2 nanomaterials as the catalyst, the excellent catalytic performance for Rhodamine B (RhB) degradation illustrates that these 2D nanomaterials prepared by this method have the characteristics of easy functionalization. This work provides an efficient strategy for nanomaterials functionalization during 2D nanosheets synthetic process and further being applied in catalysis-related field and beyond.

Automated summary

Two-dimensional nanomaterials have attracted increasing attention due to their superior mass transfer ability and abundant catalytic-active sites. This study presents a general and facile synthetic strategy for fabricating a range of amorphous 2D metal and nonmetallic oxide nanosheets. These nanomaterials are prepared through in situ hydrolysis and condensation of precursors, with their synthesis controlled by surface energy and other parameters. Density functional theory calculations are used to understand the molecular adsorption mechanism of the precursor on a solid NaCl substrate. The prepared 2D nanomaterials exhibit excellent catalytic performance and can be easily functionalized.