Eutectic Syntheses of Graphitic Carbon with High Pyrazinic Nitrogen Content

The targeted synthesis of functional carbons remains one of the big challenges. This is mainly related to the common necessity of high temperature treatments which essentially hinders external control during main parts of the synthesis. One possibility is the “encoding of functionality” in the precursors, i.e. final properties can already be determined through the choice of precursor. From phenol/ketone molecules and urea preorganized intermediate states are obtained, which can be further converted into nitrogen-containing carbons with unusually high, defined nitrogen content after thermal treatment. This is rather described by a controlled condensation than a pyrolysis process. All analysis is in line with a framework constituted, besides defects, only of aromatic carbon and pyrazinic nitrogen.

Especially nature offers an entire world of similar molecules and would thus make a library of functional materials accessible on a sustainable base. Such Nanoarchitectonics are not only relevant from a fundamental materials design point of view but also for applications such as catalysis, energy storage and adsorption.