Highly Crystalline Mesoporous C60 with Ordered Pores: A Class of Nanomaterials for Energy Applications.

ABSTRACT

Highly ordered mesoporous C60 with a well-ordered porous structure and a high crystallinity is prepared through the nanohard templating method using a saturated solution of C60 in 1-chloronaphthalene (51 mg mL-1 ) as a C60 precursor and SBA-15 as a hard template. The high solubility of C60 in 1-chloronaphthalene helps not only to encapsulate a huge amount of the C60 into the mesopores of the template but also supports the oligomerization of C60 and the formation of crystalline walls made of C60 . The obtained mesoporous C60 exhibits a rod-shaped morphology, a high specific surface area (680 m2 g-1 ), tuneable pores, and a highly crystalline wall structure. This exciting ordered mesoporous C60 offers high supercapacitive performance and a high selectivity to H2 O2 production and methanol tolerance for ORR. This simple strategy could be adopted to make a series of mesoporous fullerenes with different structures and carbon atoms as a new class of energy materials.