Solution Self-Assembly of an Alternating Copolymer toward Hollow Carbon Nanospheres with Uniform Micropores

Abstract

Controllable preparation of porous hollow carbon spheres (HCSs) has attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications, e.g., in energy conversion and storage. We report for the first time the synthesis of narrowly size-distributed HCSs with uniform micropores in the wall, through a simple template-free approach, which employs the solution self-assembly of an alternating copolymer (poly(9,9′-bis(4-glycidyloxyphenyl)fluorene-alt-2,3-dihydroxy-butylene dithioether) (P(BGF-a-DHBDT))). This alternating copolymer first self-assembled into previously undocumented hollow polymeric spheres (HPSs) in an N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)/H2O solvent mixture. After the cross-linking of the BGF segments in the spheres, the stabilized HPSs (CL-HPSs) were carbonized at 800 °C under N2 atmosphere, yielding porous HCSs with uniform micropores of very narrow size distribution (0.4–0.8 nm) in the wall, benefiting from the uniform DHBDT block length in the alternating copolymer. Through KOH activation, which mad...