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Mesoporous metal-based materials (MMBMs) have received unprecedented attention in catalysis, sensing, and energy storage and conversion owing to their unique electronic structures, uniform mesopore size and high specific surface area. In the last decade, great progress has been made in the design and application of MMBMs; in particular, many novel assembly engineering methods and strategies based on amphiphilic block copolymers as structure-directing agents have also been developed for the "bottom-up" construction of a variety of MMBMs. Development of MMBMs is therefore of significant importance from both academic and practical points of view. In this review, we provide a systematic elaboration of the molecular assembly methods and strategies for MMBMs, such as tuning the driving force between amphiphilic block copolymers and various precursors (i.e., metal salts, nanoparticles/clusters and polyoxometalates) for pore characteristics and physicochemical properties. The structure–performance relationship of MMBMs (e.g., pore size, surface area, crystallinity and crystal structure) based on various spectroscopy analysis techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculation is discussed and the influence of the surface/interfacial properties of MMBMs (e.g., active surfaces, heterojunctions, binding sites and acid–base properties) in various applications is also included. The prospect of accurately designing functional mesoporous materials and future research directions in the field of MMBMs is pointed out in this review, and it will open a new avenue for the inorganic–organic assembly in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental contamination of radioactive waste water has drawn major public concerns because of its serious hazard in chemical and dynamic bio-toxicities. In present work, the interaction mechanism of the important radionuclide uranium (U) and graphene oxide (GO) under aqueous conditions with varying pH levels was scrutinized by means of high-level density functional theory (DFT) together with the implicit water model. A closer look at the bonding structures and adsorption energies of 12 GO/uranyl complexes indicated that the main adsorption sites on GO were the oxygen-containing functional groups such as epoxy group, carboxyl group, and hydroxyl group. More importantly, high pH level was more favorable for the adsorption process of uranyl species on the graphene oxide due to the stronger electrostatic interaction between negatively charged O atom and uranyl ion. This conclusion was further verified by comprehensive analysis from density of state (DOS) and charge density difference. Compared to the other forms of graphene oxide, the GO containing bi-hydroxyl groups had the highest adsorption capacity towards the uranyl species. The present theoretical view point gave supplement to the experimental observations and the proposed intrinsic mechanisms may bring new insight into the environmental management of radioactive pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]