Controlled fabrication of orchid-like nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon and hollow carbon nanospheres

摘要

Flower-like porous carbon has fascinated significant attention due to its outstanding and exceptional properties. However, controlled synthesis of porous carbon with adjustable morphology, highly active sites and cross-linked pore channels remains still a great challenge. Herein, an inimitable dissolution-reassembly anisotropic growth strategy was firstly demonstrated for the fabrication of idiographic orchid-like hierarchical porous carbon with ultra-thin multilayer carbon sheets, high specific surface area (1063 m(2) g(-1)), large pore volume (0.82 cm(3) g(-1)) and rich nitrogen content (7.6 wt%). Highly reactive phloroglucinol and EDA aggregated magically and SiO2 acted as a pore former. Ingeniously, acetone acted as a "surgical knife," which cut the composite of SiO2@phloroglucinol-EDA into many tiny units and further anisotropic growth into orchid-like polymers. The width and thickness of the carbon petals can be effectively controlled with the diversification of acetone concentration. Intriguingly, monodisperse hollow carbon nanospheres could be harvested with silicon-deficient system, which may offer new insight into the construction of functionalized carbon materials with hollow architecture. Owing to the unmatched superstructures, orchid-like carbon materials can be employed as an ideal drug carrier and dye adsorbent.