Synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon loaded Fe, Co, Ni nanocrystals by the soft templating route and their characterization

Abstract

We report a one-step method for the synthesis of M(Fe, Co, Ni) nanocrystals supported by ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) materials. M/OMC composites were obtained by the soft templating route under acidic conditions using resorcinol and formaldehyde as carbon precursors, triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as a template and Fe, Co, Ni nitrates as metal precursors. The as-synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N2 adsorption. Characterization revealed that the as-synthesized materials possessed an ordered hexagonal mesoporous structure similar to SBA-15. The specific surface areas of the Fe/OMC, Co/OMC, and Ni/OMC composites were found to be 586, 626, and 698 m2·g-1, respectively. The fact that the metal species were present as highly dispersed nanocrystals in the OMC matrix was confirmed by XRD and high-resolution TEM. © Editorial office of Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica.