Monomicellar assembly to synthesize structured and functional mesoporous carbonaceous nanomaterials

The large pores of functional mesoporous carbonaceous nanomaterials have broad accessibility, making them efficient substrates for the mass transport of chemicals in biomedical applications, gas separation, catalysis, sensing, and energy storage and conversion. Recently, the assembly of monomicelles has been used to control the nanostructure and mesoporosity of carbonaceous nanomaterials, where the structure-oriented unit is a single micelle made up of block copolymers/surfactants and of precursor species (via hydrogen bonds, Coulombic and/or other noncovalent interactions). Each monomicelle then represents a template for a single mesopore, and multiple monomicelles can be stacked like LEGO blocks. After polymerization of the precursor species (in this case dopamine), carbonization results in the carbonaceous nanomaterial. The micellar size, structure and shape can be easily tuned by altering the synthetic conditions, providing a high degree of control over the structure of the final product, which can therefore be shaped into original nanostructures otherwise difficult to synthesize using conventional templating methods. Here we provide a detailed procedure for the preparation of the monomicelles, the monomicellar assembly into mesostructured polymeric samples and the conversion of polymeric samples to carbonaceous frameworks. We describe the functional characterization of two mesoporous carbonaceous nanomaterials that demonstrate excellent sodium-ion storage performance and oxygen reduction reactivity, respectively. The monomicellar assembly process for the synthesis of the ordered mesoporous polymers requires ~5 h; the synthesis, including subsequent centrifugation, freeze drying and carbonization, requires 2 d, whereas the entire procedure, including the characterization of the nanomaterials, requires ~4 d.