Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanoscale tubular materials with superior mechanical strength and electronic properties. However, the conventional CNTs are inherently non-piezoelectric, mainly due to the lack of polar structures with pure carbon elements. The direct synthesis of fully conjugated and polarized organic nanotubes with desired piezoelectric properties remains a challenge. Herein, we report the bottom-up synthesis of a new type of covalent triazine-based nanotube (CTN-1) as a novel piezoelectric material. The CTN-1 comprises of high surface area, nitrogen-rich and fully conjugated structure, which provides a series of merits for piezoelectric catalytic processes. These structural features combined with one-dimensional tubular morphology endow CTN-1 with excellent mechanical stimuli response and thus displaying prominent piezoelectric properties via pronounced nanocurvature effect. We further show that the CTN-1 enables the efficient synthesis of H2O2 from water in the air via mechanical energy conversion, with an excellent piezocatalytic H2O2 evolution rate of 4115 μmol g-1 h-1, which exceeds other reported piezoelectric materials. The piezocatalysis by the CTN-1 can be practically integrated into a self-Fenton system, which exhibits excellent pollutant degradation capability. This work demonstrates the enormous potential of a new type of piezoelectric synthetic nanotube from organic frameworks for the in situ synthesis valuable chemicals.
Keywords: H2O2 generation; covalent triazine framework; organic nanotube; piezocatalysis; porous materials.
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