Thalassiosira pseudonana diatom as biotemplate to produce a macroporous ordered carbon-rich material

Ordered macroporous–mesoporous carbonaceous materials were produced as a direct replica of the Thalassiosira pseudonana diatom by infiltration of the skeleton with furfuryl alcohol. The final carbon-rich material preserves the macropores of the diatom acting as bio-template and new hierarchical macro–mesopores appears as the silica is eliminated through chemical etching. The final solid can be described as an organized array of carbon macrotubes. In order to understand the progressive silica etching and the subsequent effect on the final carbon material, different etching reagents have been used. Moreover, the similar pore topology of T. pseudonana and the well known MCM-41 mesoporous silica (hexagonal ordered arrays of non-interconnected pores), allowed us to consider this system as a micrometric model to understand in 3-D the carbon replication of MCM-41 silicas.