Plug and play synthesis of an organic/inorganic hybrid electrode with adjustable porosity: redox-active organosilica confined in mesoporous carbon

Redox-active solids with accessible porosity are currently in the focus of materials research due to their numerous and prevailing applications like in sensing, as corrosion inhibitors, in organic synthesis, heterogeneous catalysis and last but not least for electrochemical energy storage e.g. in the form of supercapacitors. Examples include nanostructured transition metal oxides like RuO2 or MnO2. Although these oxides oen have high capacities and seemingly high structural stability they nevertheless may dissolve upon electrochemical cycling. Additionally, their composition is oen very complex and sensitive already to small changes in crystallinity or hydratization, which leads to problems with regard to reproducibility and dened redox properties. Alternatively, organic compounds like redox active polymers can be applied, like polyaniline or polymers, with redox active groups (e.g. ferrocenes, etc.) attached to their backbone. However, redox active polymers oen lack in chemical and structural stability. They may even change their conformation by changing the redox states, which impedes reversibility and durability. Nevertheless, it still appears worth exploiting organic entities known for their advantageous redox features, but one requires a matrix with higher structural and chemical stability. A powerful method to equip surfaces with organic functionalities is the generation of nanoporous, organic–inorganic hybrid