The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Block copolymers (BCPs)  offer a versatile platform for designing mesoporous carbon materials as efficient catalyst supports. As a first step, we designed and synthesized a porogen-containing BCP, which enabled mesoporous carbon formation via simple pyrolysis. Homopolymer blending further induced bimodal phase separation, yielding hierarchical pore structures. To further enable direct and uniform metallic catalyst incorporation, pyridine-functionalized BCPs were rationally designed and synthesized to introduce coordinating ligand sites for selective metal ion binding. Upon vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS) and pyrolysis, well-organized hierarchical porous architectures with uniformly dispersed Pt nanoparticles were obtained. Finally, electrospun nanofibers derived from the same BCP enabled the fabrication of nitrogen-doped carbon supports with confined, catalytically active metal nanoparticles.