A facile synthesis of bimodal mesoporous silica and its replication for bimodal mesoporous carbon

Bimodal mesoporous silica material composed of 30~40 nm sized nanoparticles with 3.5 nm sized three-dimensionally interconnected mesopores was synthesized under neutral conditions using sodium silicate as a silica source. Using the bimodal mesoporous silica as a template, bimodal mesoporous carbon having 4 nm sized framework mesopores and ~30 nm sized textural pores was synthesized.