Surfactant Assembly within Pickering Emulsion Droplets for Fabrication of Interior‐Structured Mesoporous Carbon Microspheres

Abstract

Large-sized carbon spheres with controllable interior architecture are highly desired, but there is no method to synthesize these materials. Here, we develop a novel method to synthesize interior-structured mesoporous carbon microspheres (MCMs), based on the surfactant assembly within water droplet-confined spaces. Our approach is shown to access a library of unprecedented MCMs such as hollow MCMs, multi-chambered MCMs, bijel-structured MCMs, multi-cored MCMs, "solid" MCMs, and honeycombed MCMs. These novel structures, unattainable for the conventional bulk synthesis even at the same conditions, suggest an intriguing effect arising from the droplet-confined spaces. This synthesis method and the hitherto unfound impact of the droplet-confined spaces on the microstructural evolution open up new horizons in exploring novel materials for innovative applications.

Space‐Confined Polymerization: Controlled Fabrication of Nitrogen‐Doped Polymer and Carbon Microspheres with Refined Hierarchical Architectures

“…The design and construction of carbon spheres with porous architectures give carbon materials several novel features—such as controllable particle size distribution, refined structure, regular geometry, and good liquidity —that are important indicators for use in photonics, biomedicine, catalysis, and advanced electrodes . Current achievements related to porous carbon spheres mostly center on nanometer‐sized spheres . However, micrometer‐sized spheres with refined hierarchical interior structures are highly desirable, because such structures not only enable spatiotemporal control of the chemical process occurring inside the spheres, but also reduce the difficulty of product separation compared with nanometer‐sized spheres .…”

Interfacial Activity of Amine‐Functionalized Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes (POSS): A Simple Strategy To Structure Liquids

“…[2,[22][23][24][25][26] Here,u nlike in colloidosomes, [1,27] colloidal capsules, [28][29][30] or Pickering emulsions, [31][32][33][34] which are stabilized with micronsized particles (Scheme 1a), functionalized nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous phase interact with end-functionalized oligomeric ligands dissolved in an oil phase at the interface to form nanoparticle surfactants (NP-surfactants; Scheme 1b), where the number of ligands anchored to the NPs is self-regulated to minimize the energy holding each NPsurfactant at the interface. [2,[22][23][24][25][26] Here,u nlike in colloidosomes, [1,27] colloidal capsules, [28][29][30] or Pickering emulsions, [31][32][33][34] which are stabilized with micronsized particles (Scheme 1a), functionalized nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous phase interact with end-functionalized oligomeric ligands dissolved in an oil phase at the interface to form nanoparticle surfactants (NP-surfactants; Scheme 1b), where the number of ligands anchored to the NPs is self-regulated to minimize the energy holding each NPsurfactant at the interface.…”

“…Recently,w ed eveloped ap owerful, versatile method to enhance and accelerate NP binding to an interface. [2,[22][23][24][25][26] Here,u nlike in colloidosomes, [1,27] colloidal capsules, [28][29][30] or Pickering emulsions, [31][32][33][34] which are stabilized with micronsized particles (Scheme 1a), functionalized nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous phase interact with end-functionalized oligomeric ligands dissolved in an oil phase at the interface to form nanoparticle surfactants (NP-surfactants; Scheme 1b), where the number of ligands anchored to the NPs is self-regulated to minimize the energy holding each NPsurfactant at the interface. [22,26] Now,w hen ac ompressive force is applied, the individual NP-surfactants are not ejected from the interface and the NP-surfactant assemblies can jam as the interfacial area decreases.T his arrests any further change in the shape of the interface,and can therefore be used to lock in highly non-equilibrium shapes of one liquid in asecond liquid, that is,tostructure the liquid.…”

Aminal‐based Hypercrosslinked Polymer Modified with Small Palladium Nanoparticles for Efficiently Catalytic Reduction of Nitroarenes

“…The fabrication of porous materials that could support ultrafine noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs), prevent NMNPs from aggregation and leaching is a very meaningful and challenging work. [1] Various inorganic supporting materials such as mesoporous silica, [2] activated carbon, [3] graphene materials, [4] mesoporous carbon [5] have been developed and used for fabricating supported catalyst with well-dispersed NMNPs. However, due to the weak Van der Waals forces between the supporting materials and NMNPs, the NMNPs easily aggregate into larger NPs and leach into the solution, leading to the deactivation of the catalyst.…”