Highly ordered mesoporous carbon materials CMI-8 with variable morphologies synthesised by nanocasting

The synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon materials, which have been named CMI-8, using the hexagonally ordered mesoporous silica CMI-1 as an exotemplate is reported. The morphology of these new mesoporous carbon materials is exactly the same as the CMI-1 template. The hexagonal pore structure replication was confirmed by XRD and TEM. From a textural point of view, the carbon replica shows a type IV isotherm and a narrow pore size distribution centred at 2.2 nm. A high surface area and total pore volume, of 1653 and 0.86 cm3/g, respectively, were obtained. The advantage of using mesoporous silica CMI-1 as a template is its variable but uniform morphologies, from sphere, gyroid, toroid to ropes.