Controllable synthesis of mesoporous carbon nanospheres with uniform size by a facile one-pot aqueous strategy under highly acidic conditions

Figure PNS synthesized by aqueous self-assembly strategy under various volume ratio of ethanol/H2O. A straightforward acid-assisted, aqueous self-assembly method was developed to synthesize monodispersed mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNs) under high concentration of triblock copolymer F127. In this process, F127 acted not only as a morphology-controlling agent but also as an interface-stabilizing agent. Acid conditions matched the self-assembly process and the fast polymerization of resorcinol/formaldehyde. Interestingly, ethanol played a significant role in controlling the cross-linking rate of resorcinol/formaldehyde and affecting the macroscopic phase separation during the self-assembly process. By optimization of the volume ratio of ethanol/water, the polymerization rate of resin molecules could be controlled and macroscopic phase separation could be avoided, thereby such uniform MCNs with particle size of about ∼100 nm and pore sizes of ∼3.5 nm could be obtained. In addition, the one-pot aqueous self-assembly approach was easily extended to large scale production.208