Hydrothermal syntheses of hollow carbon nano-materials by Ostwald ripening

A facile method to fabricate carbon nano-materials, with starch as a carbon precursor and ferrous salt as an additive, was reported. TEM studies indicated that the FeOOH nanorods were first. generated as templates, on which carbon deposited, leading to the formation of FeOOH/carbon core-shell composite nanowires. With longer reaction time, the FeOOH cores can be dissolved spontaneously, leaving hollow carbon nanorods. The mechanism of this dissolution was attributed to Ostwald ripening. When glucose or CD was used as the precursor, hollow carbon spheres would be obtained, which could be attributed to the different surfactant. effects of those precursors. This provides a very efficient method to prepare hollow carbon nanostructures via the one-pot synthesis approach. The new synthetic method has a potential to be extended to the preparation of various hollow nanostructures.