Synthesis of Monodisperse Hollow Carbon Nanocapsules by Using Protective Silica Shells

Monodisperse hollow carbon nanocapsules (<200 nm) with mesoporous shells were synthesized by coating their outer shells with silica to prevent aggregation during their high‐temperature annealing. Monodispersed silica nanoparticles were used as starting materials and octadecyltrimethoxysilane (C18TMS) was used as a carbon source to create core–shell nanostructures. These core–shell nanoparticles were coated with silica on their outer shell to form a second shell layer. This outer silica shell prevented aggregation during calcination. The samples were characterized by TEM, SEM, dynamic light scattering (DLS), UV/Vis spectroscopy, and by using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method. The as‐synthesized hollow carbon nanoparticles exhibited a high surface area (1123 m² g^?1) and formed stable dispersions in water after the pegylation process. The drug‐loading and drug‐release properties of these hollow carbon nanocapsules were also investigated.     

Nano‐structured Hollow Carbon Materials from a Non‐isothermal Chemical Vapor Deposition of Polyphenols

Pyrogallic acid (PG) was used as a modeling carbon source in fabricating nano‐structured hollow carbon materials (HCMs) by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. We found that non‐isothermal deposition can improve the integrity of the obtained HCMs. The different pyrolyzed species from PG under varied temperatures lead to the temperature‐dependent deposition yield, graphitization degree and morphology of the HCMs. HCMs including hollow spheres of varied sizes, cubic boxes with yolk‐shell structure, nanotubes, mesoporous particles and double‐shelled fibers, were prepared by using different templates, demonstrating the universality of this strategy. The carbon source has been extended to other plant polyphenols. The abundant and renewable solid precursors for CVD method endow this strategy excellent operation safety, improved storage and transportation convenience and low cost, and would boost the production of morphology‐ and size‐controlled HCMs and their applications in the fields such as water treatment, electrode materials, adsorbent, drug delivery, and so forth.     

Supercapacitor Performance of Hollow Carbon Spheres by Direct Pyrolysis of Melamine-formaldehyde Resin Spheres

The nitrogen and oxygen co-doped hollow carbon spheres(HCSs) were prepared via a simple pyrolysis of solid melamine-formaldhyde resin spheres. The carbonization temperature has an important influence on the specific surface area, pore-size distribution and heteroatom contents of HCSs. The synergistic effects of those physical and chemical properties on supercapacitor performance were systematically investigated. Among the HCSs obtained at different temperatures, HCSs-800(co-doped HCSs at 800 ℃) exhibits the best reversible specific capacitance in 2 mol/L H₂SO₄ electrolyte and meanwhile maintains a high-class capacitance retention capability. The nitrogen heteroatoms were confirmed to play a crucial role in improving capacitance in an acid medium. This kind of nitrogen doped HCSs is a potential candidate for an efficient electrode material for supercapacitors.     

A General Route to Hollow Mesoporous Rare‐Earth Silicate Nanospheres as a Catalyst Support

Hollow mesoporous structures have recently aroused intense research interest owing to their unique structural features. Herein, an effective and precisely controlled synthesis of hollow rare‐earth silicate spheres with mesoporous shells is reported for the first time, produced by a simple hydrothermal method, using silica spheres as the silica precursors. The as‐prepared hollow rare‐earth silicate spheres have large specific surface area, high pore volume, and controllable structure parameters. The results demonstrate that the selection of the chelating reagent plays critical roles in forming the hollow mesoporous structures. In addition, a simple and low‐energy‐consuming approach to synthesize highly stable and dispersive gold nanoparticle–yttrium silicate (AuNPs/YSiO) hollow nanocomposites has also been developed. The reduction of 4‐nitrophenol with AuNPs/YSiO hollow nanocomposites as the catalyst has clearly demonstrated that the hollow rare‐earth silicate spheres are good carriers for Au nanoparticles. This strategy can be extended as a general approach to prepare multifunctional yolk–shell structures with diverse compositions and morphologies simply by replacing silica spheres with silica‐coated nanocomposites.     

Electrochemical study of o-toluidine blue impregnated in mesoporous silica channels

This paper reports an electrochemical study of ordered mesoporous silica impregnated with a cationic dye (o-toluidine blue), prepared with a non-ionic surfactant as the structure-directing agent. O-toluidine blue was chosen because of its utility as an electron transfer mediator (redox catalyst). O-toluidine blue impregnated mesoporous silica was characterized by nitrogen sorption porosimetry, small angle X-ray scattering, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry using chemically modified carbon paste electrodes. Results indicate that the dye is located within the ordered mesopores of micron-sized silica spheres.     

不同酸对介孔二氧化硅球表面形貌和介相结构的影响

在室温、不同酸性条件下合成出微米级球形介孔二氧化硅材料，通过XRD、SEM以及氮气吸附等手段对介孔二氧化硅材料进行了表征。用TEM跟踪不同反应时间介孔二氧化硅球的形成，对这些球颗粒的合成机理进行了讨论，同时探讨了不同酸性条件下介孔二氧化硅表面形貌和介相结构的变化。     

壳聚糖基多孔碳材料的制备及其超级电容性能

以胶态SiO₂纳米粒子为模板,壳聚糖为碳源,ZnCl₂为活化剂,制备了具有不同比表面积和孔体积的氮掺杂介孔碳。采用多种表征手段对碳材料的微观形貌、比表面积和孔道结构进行了表征,探究了壳聚糖与SiO₂纳米粒子的比例以及ZnCl₂活化剂对碳材料孔体积和比表面积的影响。结果表明,在未使用活化剂时碳材料(CSi-1.75)的孔体积高达4.53 cm³·g^-1,但其比表面积最小(729 m²·g^-1);使用ZnCl₂作为活化剂制备的碳材料(CSi-1.75-Zn)比表面积为1 032 m²·g^-1,但其孔体积下降到1.99 cm³·g^-1,且具有最多的吡啶氮和吡咯氮。在以6.0 mol·L^-1KOH为电解液的三电极体系中,当电流密度为0.5 A·g^-1时,CSi-1.75...     

载有量子点的介孔二氧化硅微球的制备与性能研究

采用自组装方法制备了一种磁核/介孔二氧化硅壳的微球, 调节体系中C₁₈TMS的加入量可控制介孔硅球的比表面积; 并通过化学修饰的方法对介孔微球表面进行巯基功能化修饰. 利用巯基与量子点之间的相互作用可将一定尺寸的量子点吸附于介孔二氧化硅球的孔中, 令介孔微球具有荧光效应; 同时可以利用吸附不同粒径的量子点的荧光光谱对介孔二氧化硅微球孔径的大小进行近似考察.     

Dual‐Pore Mesoporous Carbon@Silica Composite Core–Shell Nanospheres for Multidrug Delivery

Monodispersed mesoporous phenolic polymer nanospheres with uniform diameters were prepared and used as the core for the further growth of core–shell mesoporous nanorattles. The hierarchical mesoporous nanospheres have a uniform diameter of 200 nm and dual‐ordered mesopores of 3.1 and 5.8 nm. The hierarchical mesostructure and amphiphilicity of the hydrophobic carbon cores and hydrophilic silica shells lead to distinct benefits in multidrug combination therapy with cisplatin and paclitaxel for the treatment of human ovarian cancer, even drug‐resistant strains.     

壳聚糖基多孔碳材料的制备及其超级电容性能

以胶态SiO₂纳米粒子为模板,壳聚糖为碳源,ZnCl2为活化剂,制备了具有不同比表面积和孔体积的氮掺杂介孔碳。采用多种表征手段对碳材料的微观形貌、比表面积和孔道结构进行了表征,探究了壳聚糖与SiO₂纳米粒子的比例以及ZnCl2活化剂对碳材料孔体积和比表面积的影响。结果表明,在未使用活化剂时碳材料(CSi-1.75)的孔体积高达4.53 cm³·g^-1,但其比表面积最小(729 m²·g^-1);使用ZnCl₂作为活化剂制备的碳材料(CSi-1.75-Zn)比表面积为1032 m²·g^-1,但其孔体积下降到1.99 cm³·g^-1,且具有最多的吡啶氮和吡咯氮。在以6.0 mol·L^-1 KOH为电解液的三电极体系中,当电流密度为0.5 A·g^-1时,CSi-1.75-Zn的比电容为344 F·g^-1,而CSi-1.75的比电容仅为255 F·g^-1。这表明碳材料的比表面积对超级电容性能影响最大,而孔体积影响较小。电容贡献分析结果表明,相对于CSi-1.75,CSi-1.75-Zn的双电层电容和赝电容都得到了提高,这表明更大的比表面积和更多的吡啶氮和吡咯氮有利于提高碳材料的超级电容性能。     

Hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials: preparation by direct tri-constituent co-assembly and the electrochemical performance

Hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials with large microporosity were prepared by direct tri-constituent co-assembly with the use of resols as the carbon precursor, tetraethyl orthosilicate as the inorganic precursor, and triblock copolymer F127 as the soft template. Bimodal pore size distributions in the range of 1.5–4 and 7.5–12 nm were obtained in the synthesized hierarchical mesoporous carbon materials after etching of silica by HF acid, showing a high surface area of 1,675 m²?g^?1 with a large pore volume of 2.06 cm³?g^?1. The electrochemical performance of the hierarchical mesoporous carbons was evaluated as an electrode material for electrochemical supercapacitor, showing a specific capacitance as high as 152 F?g^?1 at a scan rate of 5 mV?s^?1 in 6 M KOH aqueous solution and a good cycling stability with capacitance retention of 99 % over 500 cycles.     

Advances in the Interfacial Assembly of Mesoporous Silica on Magnetite Particles

Interfacing magnetic particles with ordered mesoporous materials is an effective direction for the development of functional porous composite materials with rationally designed core–shell structures. Owing to the combined properties of magnetic nanoparticles and mesoporous silica (high surface area, large pore volume, porosity, and biocompatibility), core–shell magnetic mesoporous silica materials have generated tremendous interest in various disciplines, including chemistry, materials, bioengineering, and biomedicine. Interfacial assembly strategies enable the rational construction of magnetic mesoporous silica materials with well‐defined core–shell structure, morphology, pore parameters, and surface wettability, which can decisively influence their physical and chemical properties and thus improve their application performance. This Minireview summarizes recent progress in the synthesis of core–shell magnetic mesoporous silica and the adjustment of key parameters, including pore size, morphology, and pore orientation.     

新型SiO2/SiO2核壳型固定相的制备与评价

采用层层自组装的方法,以微米多孔硅胶小球为核,将硅胶纳米粒子多层包覆,制备了核壳型SiO2/SiO2硅胶小球.透射电子显微镜表明这种硅胶小球具有明显的核壳结构,氮气吸附实验证明该硅胶小球是典型的介孔材料,具有良好的介孔结构和窄的孔径分布.将其作为基质制备碳十八键合核壳型SiO2/SiO2色谱固定相,该固定相的碳含量与未...     

Fabrication of nanocapsules with Au particles trapped inside carbon and silica nanoporous shells

Carbon capsules with hollow cores and mesoporous shells (HCMS) containing entrapped Au particles were prepared by template replication from solid core/mesoporous shell silica spheres with encapsulated Au particles. The resulting HCMS carbon capsules were then nanocast one step further to generate Au-trapping hollow core silica capsules with nanostructured shells.     

Selective Functionalization of Hollow Nanospheres with Acid and Base Groups for Cascade Reactions

The inner‐surface functionalization of hollow silica spheres has rarely been reported and is still a challenging topic. Herein, we report a deacetalization–Henry cascade reaction catalyzed by dual‐functionalized mesoporous silica hollow nanospheres with basic amine groups (?NH₂) on the internal shell and carboxylic acid groups (?COOH) on the external shell. The selective functionalization has been realized by a combination of “step‐by‐step post‐grafting” and “cationic surfactant‐assisted selective etching” strategy. Compared to unisolated catalyst, the selectively isolated acidic and basic dual catalyst provides excellent catalytic performance for the deacetalization–Henry cascade reaction in terms of both activity (>99 %) and selectivity (95 %).     

Core-shell structured nanospheres with mesoporous silica shell and Ni core as a stable catalyst for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

Core-shell structured nanospheres with mesoporous silica shell and Ni core (denoted as Ni@meso-SiO₂) are prepared through a three-step process. Monodispersed Ni precursors are first prepared, and then coated with mesoporous SiO₂. Final Ni@meso-SiO₂ spheres are obtained after calcination. The products are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and N₂ adsorption-desorption methods. These spheres have a high surface area and are well dispersed in water, showing a high catalytic activity with a TOF value of 18.5, and outstanding stability in hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane at room temperature.     

Preferential growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes on silica spheres by chemical vapor deposition

The preferential growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on silica spheres with various diameters was realized for the first time by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methane. SWNTs tend to wrap the silica spheres to form a new superstructure of uniform SWNT nanoclaws when the diameters of the silica spheres are larger than 400 nm. The SWNTs obtained on silica spheres have highly graphitic tubular walls as characterized by Raman spectroscopy and HRTEM. This is a new method to obtain tunable uniform elastic deformation of SWNTs, which may act as the model for the study about the effect of delocalized bending on the properties of SWNTs. In addition, the combination of SWNTs with monodispersed silica spheres could conveniently integrate SWNTs into photonic crystals.     

Breakthrough and future: nanoscale controls of compositions,morphologies, and mesochannel orientations toward advanced mesoporous materials

Currently, ordered mesoporous materials prepared through the self‐assembly of surfactants have attracted growing interests owing to their special properties, including uniform mesopores and a high specific surface area. Here we focus on fine controls of compositions, morphologies, mesochannel orientations which are important factors for design of mesoporous materials with new functionalities. This Review describes our recent progress toward advanced mesoporous materials. Mesoporous materials now include a variety of inorganic‐based materials, for example, transition‐metal oxides, carbons, inorganic‐organic hybrid materials, polymers, and even metals. Mesoporous metals with metallic frameworks can be produced by using surfactant‐based synthesis with electrochemical methods. Owing to their metallic frameworks, mesoporous metals with high electroconductivity and high surface areas hold promise for a wide range of potential applications, such as electronic devices, magnetic recording media, and metal catalysts. Fabrication of mesoporous materials with controllable morphologies is also one of the main subjects in this rapidly developing research field. Mesoporous materials in the form of films, spheres, fibers, and tubes have been obtained by various synthetic processes such as evaporation‐mediated direct templating (EDIT), spray‐dried techniques, and collaboration with hard‐templates such as porous anodic alumina and polymer membranes. Furthermore, we have developed several approaches for orientation controls of 1D mesochannels. The macroscopic‐scale controls of mesochannels are important for innovative applications such as molecular‐scale devices and electrodes with enhanced diffusions of guest species. © 2010 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Chem Rec 9: 321–339; 2009: Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ) DOI 10.1002/tcr.200900022     

Synthesis of double mesoporous core-shell silica spheres with tunable core porosity and their drug release and cancer cell apoptosis properties

In this work, we demonstrate a simple two-pot approach to double mesoporous core–shell silica spheres (DMCSSs) with uniform size of 245–790 nm, shell thickness of 41–80 nm and surface area and total pore volume of 141–618 m² g^?1 and 0.14–0.585 cc g^?1, respectively. First, solid silica spherical particles were synthesized by the Stöber method and used as a core. Second, a mesoporous shell could be formed around the silica cores by using an anionic surfactant and a co-structure directing agent. It was found that mesopores can be anchored within dense silica cores during mesoporous silica shell formation, synchronously the base group with surfactant assistant can etch the dense silica cores to re-organize new mesostructure, so that double mesoporous core–shell silica sphere (DMCSS) structure can be obtained by a single surfactant-templating step. The spherical size and porosity of the silica cores of DMCSS together with shell thickness can be tuned by controlling Stöber parameters, including the concentrations of ammonia, solvent and tetraethoxysilane and the reaction time. DMCSS were loaded with ketoprofen and thymoquinone, which are an anti-inflammatory and a potential novel anti-cancer drug, respectively. Both drugs showed controlled release behavior from the pores of DMCSS. Drug uptakes within DMCSS were ～27 and 81 wt.% for ketoprofen and thymoquinone, respectively. Furthermore, DMCSS loaded with thymoquinone was more effective in inducing cancer cell apoptosis than uncontained thymoquinone, because of the slow release of the drug from the mesoporous structure.     

Hierarchically Designed Three‐Dimensional Macro/Mesoporous Carbon Frameworks for Advanced Electrochemical Capacitance Storage

Mesoporous carbon (m‐C) has potential applications as porous electrodes for electrochemical energy storage, but its applications have been severely limited by the inherent fragility and low electrical conductivity. A rational strategy is presented to construct m‐C into hierarchical porous structures with high flexibility by using a carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge as a three‐dimensional template, and grafting Pt nanoparticles at the m‐C surface. This method involves several controllable steps including solution deposition of a mesoporous silica (m‐SiO₂) layer onto CNTs, chemical vapor deposition of acetylene, and etching of m‐SiO₂, resulting in a CNT@m‐C core–shell or a CNT@m‐C@Pt core–shell hybrid structure after Pt adsorption. The underlying CNT network provides a robust yet flexible support and a high electrical conductivity, whereas the m‐C provides large surface area, and the Pt nanoparticles improves interfacial electron and ion diffusion. Consequently, specific capacitances of 203 and 311 F g^?1 have been achieved in these CNT@m‐C and CNT@m‐C@Pt sponges as supercapacitor electrodes, respectively, which can retain 96 % of original capacitance under large degree compression.