Abstract
In this study, we prepared a mesoporous carbon with hexagonally packed mesopores through evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA)—with the diblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide-b-ε-caprolactone) (PEO-b-PCL) as the template (EO114CL84), phenolic resin as the carbon precursor, hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) as the curing agent, and star octakis-PEO-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (PEO–POSS) as the structure modifier—and subsequent carbonization. We then took the cylindrical mesoporous carbon as a loading matrix, with AgNO3 and Pd(NO3)2 as metal precursors, to fabricate Ag nanowire/mesoporous carbon and Pd nanoparticle/mesoporous carbon nanocomposites, respectively, through an incipient wetness impregnation method and subsequent reduction under H2. We used transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, small-angle X-ray scattering, N2 isotherm sorption experiment, Raman spectroscopy, and power X-ray diffraction to investigate the textural properties of these nanometal/carbon nanocomposites. Most notably, the Raman spectra of the cylindrical mesoporous carbon, Ag/mesoporous carbon, and Pd/mesoporous carbon revealed interesting phenomena in terms of the ratios of the intensities of the D and G bands (ID/IG), the absolute scattering intensities, and the positions of the D bands.
Highlights
Evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) has been developed aggressively as a strategy for the fabrication of mesoporous nanostructures because of its broad applicability to soft templating using various block copolymer templates [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Phenolic resin, HMTA, EO114CL84 (Mn = 14,600; PDI = 1.31), and star PEO–POSS were mixed in THF until the solution became homogenous
We required a mesoporous carbon for use as the matrix for the construction of the nanometal/mesoporous carbon nanocomposites
Summary
Evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) has been developed aggressively as a strategy for the fabrication of mesoporous nanostructures because of its broad applicability to soft templating using various block copolymer templates [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. We blended in the star octakis-PEO-functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (PEO–POSS) to induce higher ordering of the mesostructures as well as mesophase transformations of the mesoporous phenolic structures [9] In this present study, we used a mesoporous phenolic resin possessing a hexagonal cylindrical structure as the carbon precursor for the preparation of mesoporous carbon under a N2 atmosphere at 800 °C; subsequently, we employed this product and a simple incipient wetness strategy to fabricate Ag/mesoporous carbon and Pd/mesoporous carbon nanocomposites (Scheme 1).
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