Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5431878 | Carbon | 2017 | 10 Pages |
It is shown that the pore size and pore volume of carbon spheres (CSs) can be effectively tuned by varying the amount of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) during the one-pot modified Stöber synthesis that involves polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde in the presence of ethylenediamine used as a basic catalyst and nitrogen source. Namely, an increase in the amount of added TEOS caused a considerable reduction in the micropore volume accompanied by a three-fold increase in the total pore volume. This substantial increase in porosity was achieved after dissolution of the TEOS-generated silica and additional activation. Importantly, the controlled addition of TEOS was effectively used to tune the structure of the composite carbon-silica spheres to obtain, for instance, the composite spheres with uniformly distributed carbon and silica, and core-shell structures with single shells (silica core/mixed silica-carbon shell), and double shells (silica core/mixed silica-carbon shell/silica shell), which upon suitable post-synthesis treatment can be respectively converted to mesoporous CSs, hollow mesoporous CSs, and yolk-shell silica spheres. Beside the well-developed porosity and interesting morphology, the resulting CSs were N-doped and featured high surface area in the range of 1000-1439Â m2/g.
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