From polymeric “plasticine” to shape-controlled mesoporous carbon

A soft-phase intercalating process to synthesize mesostructured plasticine by using amphiphilic triblock copolymer F127 as a structure-directing agent, reverse triblock copolymer 25R4 as an intercalating soft matter, and soluble phenolic resin as a carbon source is demonstrated. The “plasticine” has interlayer organic–organic hybrid structure, which is emplastic, sticky, and able to be easily shaped at will. After template removal at 350 °C and further carbonization at 600 °C, highly ordered mesoporous polymers and carbons can be successively obtained with the maintenance of the original shape. The self-supported, shape-controlled, ordered mesoporous carbon products possess high surface areas (495–777 m2/g), large pore volumes (0.32–0.47 cm3/g), uniform pore sizes (2.5–4.3 nm) in the nanoscale and hollow tremella-like morphology in the micronscale which may facilitate mass transportation.

Graphical abstractMesostructured “plasticine” which is able to be easily shaped and transformed to ordered mesoporous carbon has been synthesized by a soft-phase intercalating process.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide