Morphology Evolution and Control of Mo-polydopamine Coordination Complex from 2D Single Nanopetal to Hierarchical Microflowers

Controllable synthesis of functional materials is of widespread interest for particle engineering. Such a method has not been widely promoted due to the lack of recognition of the fundamental principle, especially for organic-inorganic hybrid materials. Here, as an entrance, the controllable synthesis of Mo-polydopamine coordination flowers is realized through a facile foaming method, and a 2D nanopetal as the building monomer of the flower is synthesized. Depending on the morphology evolution of Mo-dopamine complex under different conditions, and the surface iterative topology growth of the Mo-polydopamine petal, the reasons of why the Mo-polydopamine complex self-assembles into a flower structure can be attributed to the synergistic effect of multicore symbiosis and structural self-protective growth behaviors. Benefiting from the strong structure stability of the Mo-polydopamine nanopetal, a hybrid structure of MoO2 quantum dot in situ anchoring in the N-doped 2D carbon framework is prepared by direct pyrolysis, which shows a highly reversible performance in application for lithium-ion secondary batteries (LIBs). This work enhances the possibility for the controllable synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials by adjusting the multicore intergrowth and inhibiting the interfacial assembly.