Nanocast carbon microsphere flowers from a lanthanum-based template

Hollow carbon microsphere flowers were nanocast from glucose, acrylamide, and acetylene sources. Carbon growth was catalyzed by a lanthanum graft copolymer template using wet acetylene. The resulting spherical shape is beneficial for 3-D porosity, and has a highly graphitic content as indicated by raman spectroscopy (ID:IG = 0.99). The carbon has a high surface area of 1000 m2/g, as well as strong π-π stacking of aromatic carbons.