writer：Jiang Gong, Jie Liu, Xuecheng Chen, Xin Wen, Zhiwei Jiang, Ewa Mijowska, Yanhui Wang, Tao Tang*
keywords：Mesoporous hollow carbon nanospheres, Polystyrene, Organically-modified montmorillonite, Cobalt catalyst, Growth mechanism
source：期刊
specific source：Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 176 (2013) 31-40
Issue time：2013年
Mesoporous hollow carbon nanospheres (HCNs) were synthesized through the carbonization of polystyrene (PS) under the combined catalysis of organically-modified montmorillonite (OMMT)/cobalt catalyst at 700 °C. The morphology, microstructure, phase structure, textural property and surface composition of the obtained mesoporous HCNs were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM), high-resolution TEM, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, N₂ sorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that OMMT not only promoted the dispersion of cobalt catalyst in the PS matrix but also affected the degradation of PS into light hydrocarbons and aromatics. The lattice oxygen of the cobalt catalyst facilitated the decomposition of light hydrocarbons and aromatics into atomic carbon during the formation of the mesoporous HCNs. A possible mechanism was proposed to explain the growth of mesoporous HCNs through the carbonization of PS under the combined catalysis of OMMT/cobalt catalyst. More importantly, this approach also offers a new potential way to transform waste polymer materials into mesoporous HCNs, which may be used as catalyst supports, adsorbents, storage media and templates for the synthesis of other useful hollow materials.