A simple organic–inorganic co-assembling route to pore-expanded ordered mesoporous carbons with 2-D hexagonal mesostructure

Ordered mesoporous carbons were synthesized from direct carbonization of sulfuric-acid-treated silica/sucrose/Pluronic P123/n-hexane composites by using sucrose as carbon precursors and n-hexane as micelle swelling agents. The results from X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms confirm the regular mesoporous structure. We find that the pore size increases from 5.1 to 8.4 nm as the molar ratio of sucrose/Pluronic P123 increases from 4.2 to 10, indicating that adding sucrose can enlarge the pore dimension. In addition, pore size can be effectively expanded from 5.1 to 12.6 nm without damaging ordered mesoporous texture in the presence of n-hexane. However, when increasing the molar ratio of n-hexane/Pluronic P123 to 100, the obtained carbon material exhibits less ordered pore structure. Therefore, the amounts of n-hexane and sucrose are the key for the preparation of long-range ordered, pore-expanded mesoporous carbons.