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COF‐1 has a structure with rigid 2D layers composed of benzene and B₃O₃ rings and weak van der Waals bonding between the layers. The as‐synthesized COF‐1 structure contains pores occupied by solvent molecules. A high surface area empty‐pore structure is obtained after vacuum annealing. High‐pressure XRD and Raman experiments with mesitylene‐filled (COF‐1‐M) and empty‐pore COF‐1 demonstrate partial amorphization and collapse of the framework structure above 12–15 GPa. The ambient pressure structure of COF‐1‐M can be reversibly recovered after compression up to 10–15 GPa. Remarkable stability of highly porous COF‐1 structure at pressures at least up to 10 GPa is found even for the empty‐pore structure. The bulk modulus of the COF‐1 structure (11.2(5) GPa) and linear incompressibilities (k_[100]=111(5) GPa, k_[001]=15.0(5) GPa) were evaluated from the analysis of XRD data and cross‐checked against first‐principles calculations.

Swelling of Brodie graphite oxide (B-GO) was studied for a series of normal alcohols from methanol to 1-nonanol. Isopiestic, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric, and differential scanning calorimetry data demonstrated that sorption of polar liquids into GO lamellas formed the set of regular swollen structures, simple binary “solid solvates”, characterized by the distance between the GO planes and the value of sorption. Temperature–composition behavior of the swollen structures was adequately described by conventional binary phase diagrams. Phase transformation of the low-temperature swollen structure of B-GO with 1-nonanol gave a clear example of incongruent melting transition typical for the binary solvates. A discreet set of the interplane distances observed by XRD and the stepwise equilibrium desorption pointed to the layered arrangement of solvent molecules in the swollen structures. The swollen structures with one to five parallel layers were observed for a series of normal alcohols with B-GO. The average volume of one layer, 0.36 ± 0.06 cm³ g^–1 B-GO, was almost the same for rather different organic liquids and was possibly restricted by the internal geometry of B-GO. This internal volume available for the sorption of the first layer was reasonably estimated from geometrical parameters of B-GO.

Graphene oxide (GO) pillared with tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane (TKAM) molecules shows a narrow distribution of pore size, relatively high specific surface area, but it is hydrophilic and electrically not conductive. Analysis of XRD, N₂ sorption, XPS, TGA and FTIR data proved that the pillared structure and relatively high surface area (∼350 m² g⁻¹) are preserved even after thermal reduction of GO pillared with TKAM molecules. Unlike many other organic pillaring molecules, TKAM is stable at temperatures above the point of GO thermal reduction, as demonstrated by TGA. Therefore, gentle annealing results in the formation of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) pillared with TKAM molecules. The TKAM pillared reduced graphene oxide (PrGO/TKAM) is less hydrophilic as found using dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) and more electrically conductive compared to pillared GO, but preserves an increased interlayer-distance of about 12 Å (compared to ∼7.5 Å in pristine GO). Thus we provide one of the first examples of porous rGO pillared with organic molecules and well-defined size of hydrophobic slit pores. Analysis of pore size distribution using nitrogen sorption isotherms demonstrates a single peak for pore size of ∼7 Å, which makes PrGO/TKAM rather promising for membrane and molecular sieve applications.

Sulfur has received considerable attention as a cathode material for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries due to its high theoretical energy density (2567 W h kg(-1)), high earth abundance, and environmental benignity. However, the insulating nature of sulfur and the shuttle effect of soluble lithium polysulfides result in serious technical issues, such as low utilization rate of sulfur, reduced columbic efficiency, and poor cycling stability, which compromise the high theoretical performance of Li-S batteries. In the past years, various attempts have been made to achieve high specific capacity and reliable cycling stability of Li-S batteries. Incorporation of sulfur into functional host materials has been demonstrated to be effective to improve the electrochemical performance of sulfur-based cathodes via enhancing the electron and Li ion conductivities, immobilizing sulfur/lithium polysulfides in cathodes, and accommodating the volume changes in sulfur-based cathodes. Therefore, the rational design of sulfur-containing composites needs to be emphasized as key strategies to develop high-performance cathodes for Li-S batteries. In this perspective, after reviewing the achievements obtained in the design of sulfur-containing composites as cathodes for Li-S batteries, we propose the new issues that should be overcome to facilitate the practical application of Li-S batteries. 

Swelling of Hummers graphene oxide (HGO) membranes in a set of progressively longer liquid alcohols (methanol to 1-nonanol) was studied using synchrotron radiation XRD after air ageing over prolonged periods of time. Both precursor graphite oxides and freshly prepared HGO membranes were found to swell in the whole set of nine liquid alcohols with an increase of interlayer spacing from ∼7 Å (solvent free) up to ∼26 Å (in 1-nonanol). A pronounced effect of ageing on swelling in alcohols was found for HGO membranes stored in air. The HGO membranes aged for 0.5–1.5 years show progressively slower swelling kinetics, a non-monotonic decrease of saturated swelling in some alcohols and complete disappearance of swelling for alcohol molecules larger than hexanol. Moreover, the HGO membranes stored under ambient conditions for 5 years showed a nearly complete absence of swelling in all alcohols but preserved swelling in water. In contrast, precursor graphite oxide powder showed unmodified swelling in alcohols even after 4 years of ageing. Since the swelling defines the size of permeation channels, the ageing effect is one of the important parameters which could explain the strong variation in reported filtration/separation properties of GO membranes. The time and conditions of air storage require standardization for better reproducibility of results related to performance of GO membranes in various applications. The ageing of GO membranes can be considered not only as a hindrance/degradation for certain applications, but also as a method to tune the swelling properties of HGO membranes for better selectivity in sorption of solvents and for achieving better selective permeability.

Hybrid 2D–2D materials composed of perpendicularly oriented covalent organic frameworks (COFs) and graphene were prepared and tested for energy storage applications. Diboronic acid molecules covalently attached to graphene oxide (GO) were used as nucleation sites for directing vertical growth of COF-1 nanosheets (v-COF-GO). The hybrid material has a forest of COF-1 nanosheets with a thickness of 3 to 15 nm in edge-on orientation relative to GO. The reaction performed without molecular pillars resulted in uncontrollable growth of thick COF-1 platelets parallel to the surface of GO. The v-COF-GO was converted into a conductive carbon material preserving the nanostructure of precursor with ultrathin porous carbon nanosheets grafted to graphene in edge-on orientation. It was demonstrated as a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors. The molecular pillar approach can be used for preparation of many other 2D-2D materials with control of their relative orientation.

Graphite oxides (GO) are intercalated rapidly by one to several layers of solvent when immersed in liquid but the GO solvates are typically unstable on air due to solvent evaporation. Here we study swelling of GO in solvents (sugar alcohols) with melting temperature point above ambient. Using in situ synchrotron radiation XRD experiments we demonstrated GO swelling in molten xylitol and sorbitol. The expanded GO structure intercalated with one layer of xylitol or sorbitol is preserved upon solidification of melt and cooling back to ambient conditions. The structure of solid solvates of GO with xylitol and sorbitol is based on non-covalent interaction and pristine GO can be recovered by washing in water. Intercalation of xylitol and sorbitol into GO structure in aqueous solutions yields similar but less ordered structure of GO/sugar alcohol solid solvates. Very similar inter-layer distance was observed for GO intercalated by sugar alcohols in melt and for GO immersed in sugar solutions. This result shows that sugar alcohols penetrate into GO inter-layer space without hydration shell forming 2D layers with orientation parallel to graphene oxide sheets. Therefore, hydration diameter of molecules should not be considered as decisive factor for permeation through graphene oxide inter-layers in multilayered membranes.

The most common methods to evaluate hydrogen sorption (volumetric and gravimetric) require significant experience and expensive equipment for providing reproducible results. Both methods allow one to measure excess uptake values which are used to calculate the total amount of hydrogen stored inside of a tank as required for applications. Here we propose an easy to use and inexpensive alternative approach which allows one to evaluate directly the weight of hydrogen inside a material-filled test tank. The weight of the same tank filled with compressed hydrogen in the absence of loaded material is used as a reference. We argue that the only parameter which is of importance for hydrogen storage applications is by how much the material improves the total weight of hydrogen inside of the given volume compared to compressed gas. This parameter which we propose to name Gain includes both volumetric and gravimetric characterization of the material; it can be determined directly without knowing the skeletal volume of the material or excess sorption. The feasibility of the Gravimetric Tank (GT) method was tested using several common carbon and Metal Organic Framework (MOF) materials. The best Gain value of ∼12% was found for the Cu-BTC MOF which means that the tank completely filled with this material stores a 12% higher amount of hydrogen compared to H2 gas at the same P–Tconditions. The advantages of the GT method are its inexpensive design, extremely simple procedures and direct results in terms of tank capacity as required for industrial applications. The GT method could be proposed as a standard check for verification of the high hydrogen storage capacity of new materials. The GT method is expected to provide even better accuracy for evaluation of a material's performance for storage of denser gases like e.g. CO2 and CH4.

Permeation of multilayered graphene oxide (GO) membranes by polar solvents is known to correlate with their swelling properties and amount of sorbed solvent. However, quantitative estimation of sorption using standard (e.g., gravimetric) methods is technically challenging for few nanometers thick GO membranes/films exposed to solvent vapors. Neutron reflectivity (NR) was used here to evaluate the amount of solvents intercalated into the film which consists of only ∼31.5 layers of GO. Analysis of NR data recorded from the GO film exposed to vapors of polar solvents provides information about change of film thickness due to swelling, amount of intercalated solvent, and selectivity in sorption of solvents from binary mixtures. A quantitative study of GO film sorption was performed for D₂O, d-methanol, ethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), acetonitrile, dimethylformamide (DMF), and acetone. Using isotopic contrast, we estimated selectivity in sorption of ethanol/d-methanol mixtures by the GO film. Estimation of sorption selectivity was also performed for D₂O/DMF, D₂O/DMSO, and D₂O/acetonitrile binary mixtures. Sorption of polar solvents was compared for the thin GO film, micrometer thick free standing GO membranes, and graphite oxide powders.

Hydrogen sorption by reduced graphene oxides (r-GO) is not found to increase after decoration with Pd and Pt nanoparticles. Treatments of metal decorated samples using annealing under hydrogen or air were tested as a method to create additional pores by effects of r-GO etching around nanoparticles. Increase of Specific Surface Area (SSA) was observed for some air annealed r-GO samples. However, the same treatments applied to activated r-GO samples with microporous nature and higher surface area result in breakup of structure and dramatic decrease of SSA. Our experiments have not revealed effects which could be attributed to spillover in hydrogen sorption on Pd or Pt decorated graphene. However, we report irreversible chemisorption of hydrogen for some samples which can be mistakenly assigned to spillover if the experiments are incomplete.