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Porous heteroatom-doped carbons are desirable for catalytic reactions due to their tunable physicochemical properties, low cost and metal-free nature. Herein, we introduce a facile general bottom-up strategy, so-called "cooking carbon in a solid salt", to prepare hierarchically porous heteroatom-doped carbon foams by using poly(ionic liquid) as precursor and common inorganic salts as structural template. The obtained carbon foams bear micro-/meso-/macropores, large specific surface area and rich nitrogen dopant. The combination of these favorable features facilitates the catalytic degradation of aqueous organic pollutants by persulfate under visible light irradiation, in which they prevail over the state-of-the-art metal-/carbon-based catalysts., Comment: 31 pages, 24 figures

Sustainable development and the recent fast growing global demands for energy and functional chemicals urgently call for effective methods for CO2 remediation and efficient metal-free catalysts for selective oxidation of aromatic alcohol. Herein, a unique main-chain poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) is employed as the precursor to prepare nitrogen doped micro and mesoporous carbons via simultaneous carbonization and activation, which bear high yield, large specific surface area above 1700 m2 per g and rich nitrogen dopant. The porous carbon products deliver a high CO2 adsorption capacity up to 6.2 mmol per g at 273 K and 1 bar with outstanding reversibility and satisfactory selectivity. Besides, they work excellently as metal free carbocatalysts for the selective aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde with high selectivity. It is believed that this work not only provides a facile approach to prepare nitrogen-doped porous carbon, but also advances the related research in the fields of environment and catalysis., Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures

Porous and flexible actuating materials are important in the development of smart systems. We report here a facile method to prepare scalable, flexible actuating porous membranes based on a poly(ionic liquid)-modified tissue paper. The targeted membrane property profile was based on a synergy of a gradient porous structure of poly(ionic liquid) network and the flexibility of tissue paper. The gradient porous structure was built up through ammonia-triggered electrostatic complexation of a poly(ionic liquid) with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) that were previously impregnated inside the tissue paper. As a result, these porous membranes undergo bending deformation in response to organic solvents in vapor or liquid phase and can recover their shape back in air, which was demonstrated to be able to serve as solvent sensors. Besides, they show enhanced mechanical properties due to the introduction of mechanically flexible tissue paper that allows the membranes to be designed as new responsive textiles and contractile actuators., Comment: 37 pages, 28 figures

The first hygroscopic tunable cloth actuator is realized via modification of commercial cloth template by a 3D nanoporous polymer hybrid. The nanoporous hybrid guarantees fast water diffusion and amplifies deformation. The cloth actuator achieves a large-scale size production, tunable motion, high tensile strength and mechanical flexibility with a breadth of utilities (e.g., electric generator and smart materials)., Comment: 40 pages, 37 figures

A composite porous polymer membrane with aligned CNTs in its matrix is developed which exhibits programmable, anisotropic actuation towards organic vapors. The alignment of CNTs in multiple directions and the gradient porous structure of the membrane are critical for the actuation, and the actuating direction can be well controlled at a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal orientation of CNTs. The reversible actuation may be repeated for 300 cycles without obvious fatigue. These polymer composites are promising building blocks for a wide variety of applications such as sensors and actuators. The concept of programmable actuation succeeded here in a porous polymer mateial via complex orientation of CNTs reflects a new high level of control over physical motions that is applicable to a broad range of soft actuators., Comment: 14 figures, 24 pages

A commercially available membrane filter paper composed of mixed cellulose esters bearing typically an interconnected pore structure was transformed into a stimuli-responsive bilayer actuator by depositing a thin film of poly(ionic liquid)-modified graphene oxide sheets (GO-PIL) onto the filter paper. In acetone vapor, the as-synthesized bilayer actuator bent readily into multiple loops at a fast speed with the GO-PIL top film inwards. Upon pulling back into air the actuator recovered their original shape. The asymmetric swelling of the top GO-PIL film and the bottom porous filter paper towards organic vapor offers a favorably synergetic function to drive the actuation. The PIL polymer chains in the hybrid film were proven crucial to enhance the adhesion strength between the GO sheets and the adjacent filter paper to avoid interfacial delamination and thus improve force transfer. The overall construction allows a prolonged lifetime of the bilayer actuator under constant operation, especially when compared to that of the GO/filter paper bilayer actuator without PIL., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures