Direct fabrication of bimodal mesoporous carbon by nanocasting

Bimodal mesoporous carbons were successfully prepared by a simple one-step templating method. The template of large mesopores in our method is the in situ formed silica nano-agglomerate from the drying-induced collapse of superfluous silica frameworks. Moreover, the diameter of large mesopores can be easily tailored by the ratio of methylated β-cyclodextrin to tetramethyl orthosilicate (CD/TMOS), increasing with decreasing the CD/TMOS. The typical bimodal mesoporous carbons with 2.4 nm and ca. 24 nm diameter mesopores have great Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface areas (e.g. 783 m2/g) and large mesopore volumes (e.g. 2.18 cm3/g).