Structural Evolution and Compositional Modulation of ZIF-8-Derived Hybrids Comprised of Metallic Ni Nanoparticles and Silica as Interlayer

Abstract

Great efforts on metal-organic framework (MOF) derived nanostructures have been devoted to modulating the compositional and structural complexities to enhance performance in various applications. However, a facile method that can simultaneously manipulate the structures of the MOF-derived material and the chemical component remains a considerable challenge. Here we report a facile strategy to use the polyhedral ZIF-8 as a precursor for synthesizing ZIF-8-derived hybrids with different components and morphologies. The synthesis involves the preparation of ZIF-8 MOF templates and sequential covering of the ZIF-8 with a interlayer of silica and then polydopamine-Ni2+ (PDA-Ni2+) and carbonizing at different high temperatures under a nitrogen atmosphere, finally leading to ZIF-8-derived hybrids with different components and structures. In the whole process, the preliminary ZIF-8 precursor play a crucial role in the morphology and structure of the final carbonized products, which can be considered as templates for silica coating and precursors of N-doped carbon layer and Zn species. We also found that the SiO2 interlayer coating is a crucial procedure for the formation of yolk-shell structured ZIF-8@SiO2@PDA-Ni2+ composites. Owing to the uniformly distributed Ni NPs and unique structures of the composites, the as-prepared Ni-based composites show high performance in the catalysis of 4-nitrophenol as well as enrichment of histidine-rich proteins. In addition, this proposed strategy for the controllable design and synthesis of ZIF-8-derived nanocomposites paves a new way in developing superior active materials in energy storage conversion etc.