Synthesis of hollow spherical mesoporous N-doped carbon materials with graphitic framework

Mesostructured carbon hollow spheres were prepared via a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) nanocasting route which utilized mesoporous silica SBA-15 spheres as sacrificial solid template and acetonitrile as carbon source. The hollow spheres were obtained when CVD derived silica/carbon composites were subjected to silica etching in hydrofluoric (HF) acid. The use of acetonitrile as carbon source resulted in N-doped (CNx type) materials with nitrogen content of up to 7.8 wt%. The mesostructured carbon hollow spheres have high surface area and pore volume (up to 780 m(2)/g and 0.66 cm(3)/g respectively) and in addition exhibit high levels of graphitization in the pore walls. The pore size of the hollow spheres was varied (between 2 and 5 nm) by changing the nature of spherical SBA-15 silica used as template.