Fabrication of Mesoporous Carbons with Rod and Winding Road Like Morphology Using NbSBA-15 Templates

Here we demonstrate for the first time the fabrication hexagonally ordered mesoporous carbon materials with different morphology and pore diameters using NbSBA-15 mesoporous silica template with different niobium content. The materials were characterized by several characterization techniques such as XRD, HRSEM, HRTEM, elemental mapping, ICP-AES, and EDS analysis. We also demonstrate that the morphology of the materials can be controlled by simply tuning the morphology of the parent NbSBA-15 template, whose morphology can be tuned by adjusting the loading of niobium in the framework wall structure of SBA-15. Nitrogen adsorption results reveal that the textural parameters of the mesoporous carbon materials prepared from NbSBA-15 are much better than those prepared with pristine SBA-15 template, and vary with the amount niobium present in the template. It was also found that the pore diameter of the NbMC-X increases with decreasing the amount of niobium in the framework wall structure of the template. The morphology and the topology of the materials were observed by HRSEM and HRTEM, respectively. The materials with rod and semi-spherical or winding road like morphology can be obtained using NbSBA-15 materials with different Nb content. It was found that the usage of NbSBA-15 as templates for the fabrication of mesoporous carbon materials can also allow us to decorate the pore channels of the materials with either niobium oxide or niobium silicate nanoparticles which are expected to show high performance when used in redox catalysis, and the biomolecule adsorption as the niobium has the strong tendency to adsorb the protein molecules

Synthesis of Mesoporous Carbon Using a Fullerenol-based Precursor Solution via Nanocasting with SBA-15

Here, we demonstrate mesoporous carbons with different amounts of fullerene cage (MCF) by using a fullerenol-based precursor solution via a nanocasting method with SBA-15 mesoporous silica. The fullerene cages embedded in the frameworks are electrochemically active, showing high potential as an electrode material for an electric double-layer capacitor

Comparative study on the magnetic properties of iron oxide nanoparticles loaded on mesoporous silica and carbon materials with different structure

Here we demonstrate the fabrication of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in SBA-15, KIT-6, hexagonally ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3), and carbon nanocage (CNC), and compare their unusual magnetic properties. We also demonstrate that pore diameter of the mesoporous silica supports dictates the particle diameter of the iron oxide nanoparticles confined in the porous matrix. The effect of the structure, composition, and the textural parameters of the mesoporous supports on the magnetic properties of the iron oxide nanoparticles has been clearly demonstrated. It has also been found that the interaction between the iron oxide nanoparticles, nature of the mesoporous supports, and the size of the nanoparticles play a critical role in controlling their magnetic properties. Among the mesoporous supports studied, carbon nanocage is found to be superior over CMK-3, SBA-15, and KIT-6 for the fabrication of highly super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Typical saturation magnetization for magnetic nanoparticles confined to CNC, CMK-3, KIT-6, and SBA-15 are 40, 27.18, 11.15, and 10.62 emu/g, respectively. An important finding is that our silica-hybrid magnetic materials exhibit larger values of coercivities than the carbon based supports, which may be due to the difference in the insulation properties of the supports. Coercivities values range from 500 Oe [CNC, carbon-based] to 3500 Oe [SBA-15, silica-based]. It has been also found that the particle–particle interaction is maximum for the magnetic particles confined to CNC

Direct synthesis of nanoporous carbon nitride fibers using Al-based porous coordination polymers (Al-PCPs)

We report a new synthetic route for preparation of nanoporous carbon nitride fibers with graphitic carbon nitride polymers, by calcination of Al-based porous coordination polymers (Al-PCPs) with dicyandiamide (DCDA) under a nitrogen atmosphere