General Synthesis of 3D Ordered Macro-/Mesoporous Materials by Templating Mesoporous Silica Confined in Opals
By Sun, Tingting; Shan, Nannan; Xu, Lianbin; Wang, Jiexin; Chen, Jianfeng; Zakhidov, Anvar A.; Baughman, Ray H.
Published in Chemistry of Materials
2018
Abstract
Three-dimensionally (3D) ordered macro-/mesoporous (3DOM/m) materials, which combine the advantages of high surface area of the mesopores, efficient mass transport within the macropores, and strong structural stability of the 3D interconnected porous frameworks, have shown remarkable performances in a wide range of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a novel dual-hard-templating technique as a general synthetic strategy for constructing the 3DOM/m materials by nanocasting mesoporous silica confined within the regular voids of a silica colloidal crystal (opal). Through this method, various materials, such as 3DOM/m Pt, Pd, Ni2P, carbon and N/P codoped carbon (NPC), have been successfully synthesized. The as-prepared 3DOM/m Ni2P and NPC are demonstrated to exhibit outstanding electrocatalytic performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), respectively.