Kinetically Controlled Assembly of Nitrogen-Doped Invaginated Carbon Nanospheres with Tunable Mesopores.
Mesoporous hollow carbon nanospheres (MHCS) have been extensively studied owning to their unique structural features and diverse potential applications. A surfactant-free self-assembly approach between resorcinol/formaldehyde and silicon alkoxide has emerged as an important strategy to prepare MHCS. Extending such a strategy to other substituted phenols to produce heterogeneous-atom-doped MHCS remains a challenge due to the very different polymerization kinetics of various resins. Herein, we report an ethylenediamine-assisted strategy to control the cooperative self-assembly between a 3-aminophenol/formaldehyde resin and silica templates. Nitrogen-doped mesoporous invaginated carbon nanospheres (N-MICS) with an N content of 6.18 at %, high specific surface areas (up to 1118 m2g-1), large pore volumes (2.47 cm3g-1), and tunable mesopores (3.7-11.1 nm) have been prepared. When used as electrical double-layer supercapacitors, N-MICS show a high capacitance of 261 F g-1, an outstanding cycling stability (≈94 % capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles), and a good rate performance.
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Yang
Y
Liu
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Hongwei
H
Zhang
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Owen
O
Noonan
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Chun
C
Xu
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Yuting
Y
Niu
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Yannan
Y
Yang
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.|State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Liang
L
Zhou
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. x.huang@uq.edu.au.
Xiaodan
X
Huang
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. c.yu@uq.edu.au.
Chengzhong
C
Yu
carbon nanospheres; hollow structure; mesoporous materials; self-assembly; supercapacitors