Controlled Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Carbon-Cobalt Oxide Nanocomposites with Large Mesopores and Graphitic Walls

Abstract

Ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC)-metal oxide composites have attracted great interest due to their combination of high surface area, uniform pores, good conductivity of mesoporous carbon, and excellent photo-, electro- and chemical sensing properties of metal oxides. Herein, OMC-metal oxide composites with large mesopores and monodispersed CoOx nanoparticles were synthesized via a controllable multicomponent cooperative coassembly of ultrahigh-molecular-weight poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polystyrene (PEO-b-PS) copolymers, resol (soluble phenoic resin carbon precursor), and cobalt nitrate (cobalt oxide precursor). The obtained nanocomposites possess a face-centered cubic (fcc) mesoporous structure, large pore size (13.4–16.0 nm), high surface area (394–483 m2/g), large pore volume (0.41–0.48 cm3/g), and uniform CoOx nanoparticles with tunable diameters (6.4–16.7 nm). The long chain length of amphiphilic PEO-b-PS template molecules contributes to large mesopores and thick pore walls that allow a controllable ...