Metallopolymer Particle Engineering via Etching of Boronate Polymers toward High-Performance Overall Water Splitting Catalysts

Metallopolymers combine the property features of both metallic compounds and organic polymers, representing a typical direction for the design of high-performance hybrid materials. Here, a highly adaptive etching method to create pores and cavities in the metallopolymer particles is established. Starting from boronate polymer (BP) and inorganic@BP core-shell particles, porous, hollow, and yolk-shell metallopolymer particles can be fabricated, respectively. By taking advantage of the easy control over composition and pore/cavity structure, these metallopolymer particles provide a universal platform for the fabrication of nitrogen, boron co-doped carbon nanocomposites loaded with metals (M-NBCs). The as-prepared M-NBCs exhibit remarkable catalytic activities toward oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction. An alkaline overall water splitting cell assembled by using M-NBCs as the anode and cathode can be driven by a single AAA battery. The proposed strategy for the construction of metallopolymer composites may enlighten for the design of complex hybrid nanomaterials.

Automated summary

Metallopolymers combine the features of metallic compounds and organic polymers, allowing the fabrication of porous, hollow, and yolk-shell metallopolymers for the synthesis of metal-doped carbon nanocomposites. These nanocomposites exhibit remarkable catalytic activities and can be used in alkaline water splitting cells.