One-pot route to synthesize ordered mesoporous polymer/silica and carbon/silica nanocomposites using poly(dimethylsiloxane)–poly(ethylene oxide) (PDMS–PEO) as co-template

Ordered mesoporous polymer/silica and carbon/silica nanocomposites have been successfully prepared with triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 using diblock copolymer poly(dimethylsiloxane)–poly(ethylene oxide) (PDMS–PEO) as co-template. The structure of resulting mesoporous materials has been characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen-sorption measurements. The framework composition is also studied by the combination of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Raman spectra and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WXRD). Experiments show that body-centered cubic (space group Im3¯m) mesoporous polymer/silica and carbon/silica nanocomposite with large pore size have been obtained. The incorporation of PDMS–PEO can reduce the framework shrinkage and dramatically enlarges the pore sizes of the materials without evident effect on the BET surface areas. This simple one-pot route provides a pathway for large-scale convenient synthesis of polymer/silica and carbon/silica nanocomposites.