An Aqueous Cooperative Assembly Route To Synthesize Ordered Mesoporous Carbons with Controlled Structures and Morphology

A facile aqueous pathway has been demonstrated for the synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon materials with hexagonal or cubic structures through the self-assembly of phenol/formaldehyde resols and triblock copolymer templates. Highly ordered mesoporous carbons FDU-16 with body-centered cubic structure (space group Im3m) have been synthesized under a basic aqueous condition by using triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 (EO106PO70EO106) as a template. Hydrocarbon (hexadecane or decane) can be used in the Pluronic P123 (EO20PO70EO20) system as a swelling agent to synthesize highly ordered mesoporous carbons FDU-15 with 2-D hexagonal (p6m) structure. The pore size of FDU-15 can be tailored from 4.1 to 6.8 nm by simply varying the hydrocarbon molecules. Mesoporous carbon materials FDU-14 with bicontinuous cubic (Ia3d) structure can be formed at a P123/phenol molar ratio higher than 0.04. A phase transformation from Ia3d to p6m occurs as the P123/phenol ratio decreases. It is proposed that the cooperative asse...