Synthesis and characterization of hollow mesoporous carbon spheres with a highly ordered bicontinuous cubic mesostructure

Hollow mesoporous carbon spheres (HMCSs) with a bicontinuous mesostructure were directly replicated from hollow mesoporous aluminosilicate spheres (HMASs) via a simple incipient-wetness impregnation technique. The highly ordered cubic mesostructure and hollow spherical features of HMCSs were demonstrated by XRD, N₂ sorption, FESEM, HRTEM and other techniques. The aluminum species incorporated into the wall of HMASs not only determined the hollow morphology of HMASs, but also could catalyze the polymerization of the carbon source in the pore channels during the replicating process, so that the conventional catalyst loading step or acidic catalyst was no longer needed. The hollow mesoporous structure and the spherical morphology of HMASs were faithfully and directly replicated with only one impregnation/carbonization step.