Hollow carbon nanoparticles of tunable size and wall thickness by hydrothermal treatment of α-Cyclodextrin templated by f127 block copolymers

Abstract

On the basis of the strategy of forming supermolecular structure between α-cyclodextrin and poly(ethylene oxide), a facile synthesis process has been successfully developed for producing hollow carbon nanoparticles of controllable size and morphology by hydrothermal treatment of α-cyclodextrin in the presence of Pluronic F127 as a soft template. The hollow carbon nanoparticles thus derived are demonstrated to exhibit excellent hydrophilic behavior. Their sizes and wall thicknesses can be tuned by adjusting the ratio of α-cyclodextrin to F127. After pyrolysis at 900 C in argon gas, the hollow carbon nanoparticles exhibit a meso-/microporous carbon wall with specific surface area of >400 m2/g and a high specific charge capacity of >450 mAh/g when employed as an anode in a lithium ion battery. © 2013 American Chemical Society.