Controlled Synthesis of N-Doped Carbon Nanospheres with Tailored Mesopores through Self-Assembly of Colloidal Silica.
Limited strategies have been established to prepare monodisperse mesoporous carbon nanospheres (MCNs) with tailored pore sizes. In this work, a method is reported to synthesize MCNs by combining polymerization of aniline with co-assembly of colloidal silica nanoparticles. The controlled self-assembly behavior of colloidal silica enables the formation of uniform composite nanospheres and convenient modulation over mesopores. After carbonization and removal of sacrificial templates, the resultant MCNs possess tunable mesopores (7-42 nm) and spherical diameters (90-300 nm), as well as high surface area (785-1117 m(2)  g(-1) ), large pore volume (1.46-2.01 cm(3)  g(-1) ) and abundant nitrogen moieties (5.54-8.73 at %). When serving as metal-free electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), MCNs with an optimum pore size of 22 nm, compared to those with 7 and 42 nm, exhibit the best ORR performance in alkaline medium.
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz (Germany).|State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 030001 Taiyuan (China).|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049 Beijing (China).
Gang
G
Wang
State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 030001 Taiyuan (China).
Yuhan
Y
Sun
State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 030001 Taiyuan (China).
Debao
D
Li
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz (Germany).
Hai-Wei
HW
Liang
Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (CFAED) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden (Germany).
Renhao
R
Dong
Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (CFAED) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden (Germany). xinliang.feng@tu-dresden.de.
Xinliang
X
Feng
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz (Germany). muellen@mpip-mainz.mpg.de.
Klaus
K
Müllen
mesoporous carbon; mesoporous polyaniline; nanospheres; nitrogen-doping; oxygen reduction reaction