title: Surfactant-Free Assembly of Mesoporous Carbon Hollow Spheres with Large Tunable Pore Sizes.
abstract: Mesoporous carbon hollow spheres (MCHS) have wide applications, including catalysis, absorption, and energy storage/conversion. Herein, we report a one-pot, surfactant-free synthesis of MCHS using three molecules: resorcinol, formaldehyde, and tetrapropyl orthosilicate. The co-condensation process between the in situ generated silica primary particles and the polymer oligomers is regulated, leading to monodispersed MCHS with adjustable pore sizes from micropores to 13.9 nm. The resultant MCHS shows excellent performance for electrochemical double-layer capacitors with high capacitance (310 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1)), excellent rate capability (157 F g(-1) at 50 A g(-1)), and outstanding cycling stability (98.6% capacity retention after 10 000 cycles at 10 A g(-1)). Our one-pot synthesis strategy is versatile and can be extended to fabricate metal oxide@mesoporous carbon yolk-shell structures in the absence of surfactant, paving the way toward designed synthesis of nanostructured mesoporous carbon composites for various applications.
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Hongwei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Owen
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Noonan
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Xiaodan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Yannan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology , Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Chengzhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
keywords: mesoporous hollow carbon; sol−gel process; supercapacitors; surfactant-free; yolk−shell structures