Preparation of transparent ordered mesoporous carbon/silica composites and their optical limiting properties

Ordered mesoporous carbon/silica bulk composites were prepared via a simple sol–gel method and hot-pressing technique. Without removing the silica template, carbon particles were maintained in the form of ordered carbon wires and were dispersed homogeneously throughout the silica matrix. The linear transmittance of the composite with 0.3 wt% ordered mesoporous carbon reached ∼81% near 1100 nm, larger than that of a carbon nanotubes/silica composite with less carbon content. The experimental results of z-scan indicated that the main optical limiting mechanism of the composites was nonlinear absorption, and that the optical limiting properties improved with increasing carbon content. Ordered mesoporous carbon/silica composites are more competitive materials for optical limiting compared to their carbon nanotube/silica counterparts.