Surface Charge‐Driven Nanoengineering of Monodisperse Carbon Nanospheres with Tunable Surface Roughness

Abstract

Direct pyrolysis of polymer nanospheres usually leads to severe particle aggregation, uncontrolled surface morphology, and poor solvent dispersibility of the carbonaceous analogues. The successful manipulation of surface roughness, surficial mesopores, and water dispersibility of carbon nanospheres (CNSs) is essential to meet their structural varieties and practical applications. In this study, a facile, surface charge-driven, interfacial assembly method is reported for the synthesis of CNSs with the abovementioned properties, which involve the interfacial assembly between hetero-charged silica nanoparticles and polymer nanospheres process. Noticeably, the surface area and pore volume of the resultant rough-surface CNSs can be augmented remarkably compared to those of direct-pyrolyzed CNSs. Moreover, the cooperation of uniformity and rough-surface morphology imparts CNSs with good dispersion stability and more adsorption sites for efficiently removing and recovering water pollutants, e.g., fluorescent derivative fluorescein 5(6)-isothiocyanate; thus, CNSs contribute greatly to environment protection and resource cyclic utilization. These findings may set the foundations for designing and constructing multifarious morphological carbon nanomaterials, with great monodispersity, surficial mesopores and rough surface, for various applications.

Programmable synthesis of radially gradient-structured mesoporous carbon nanospheres with tunable core-shell architectures

“…[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] In particular, mesoporous polymer and carbon nanospheres (MCSs) are of great scientific and technological interests owing to their large pore size, good liquidity, and the smallest surface-to-volume ratio, which are very promising for mass-diffusion-limited and close packing applications. [24][25][26][27] A variety of strategies have been developed to prepare MCSs with controllable pore sizes and nanostructures, including spraying, 28,29 dripping, 30 colloid-assisted assembly, 31,32 modified Sto ¨ber method, 33,34 space-confined polymerization, 35 polymer assembly, 36 and solid-state reaction. 37 However, in these cases, the structural control is pretty difficult, and most of the resultant MCSs are limited to single-model pore architecture because the porogens (e.g., micelles and colloidal particles) used for the assembly are usually identical and not adjustable for a given system.…”

Ordered Mesopore Confined Pt Nanoclusters Enable Unusual Self-Enhancing Catalysis

“…Aberration-corrected high angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ac-HAADF-STEM) images (Figure E) reveal that the Pt NCs in Pt-mpTiO 2 -PS 120 consist of many Pt atoms. The formation of such a unique nanocluster structure of Pt is possibly due to the hydrophilic rough pore wall of mpTiO 2 formed by TiO 2 nanocrystals, which helps to spread the Pt precursor solution but prevent Pt species from aggregation during reduction . By contrast, much larger Pt particles of 3.38 ± 0.72 and 3.25 ± 0.73 nm, respectively, were obtained when the as-synthesized npTiO 2 and commercial anatase TiO 2 (comTiO 2 ) powders were used as the supports (Figures S3 and S7).…”

Highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon superstructures derived from the intramolecular cyclization-induced crystallization-driven self-assembly of poly(amic acid)

“…[1][2][3][4][5] These outstanding properties make them promising candidates in electrochemical applications including energy storage and electrochemical catalysis. [6][7][8] Heteroatom doping and adjustment of the pore structure are efficient strategies to improve the electrochemical performance of carbon materials. [9][10][11][12] Pores with different diameters have various functions in electrochemical applications.…”