(158d) Template-Mediated Tunability of Pores, Polymorphism, and Function in Nanostructured Materials

The engineering of porous metal oxide derived catalysts requires identification of strategies for simultaneously tailoring properties among porosity, polymorphism, and function across a diverse materials palette. In this talk, we will describe physicochemical insights into a templating strategy aimed at the synthesis of hierarchically structured metal oxides. Specifically, we will show how colloidal crystal templates enable versatile sacrificial templating of three-dimensionally ordered mesoporous (3DOm) metal oxides. Beyond porogenic scaffolding of nanostructured materials, we identify a template-mediated interfacial mechanism for 1) stabilizing metastable 3DOm metal oxide polymorphs upon high-temperature processing, 2) tuning fractional polymorphism, and 3) even tailoring the nature of active surface sites. The accessible materials palette and translation of template-mediated interfacial phenomenon even to amorphous materials (e.g., templated carbons) opens possibilities for multi-scale engineering of structured materials for applications ranging among separations, photocatalytic decomposition of bulky molecules, and even enhanced supercapacitor and solar cell electrode technologies.