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https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/boms/041/01/0030

Mesoporous silica; MCM-48; CNT; mesoporous silicon carbide; carbothermal reduction.

Mesoporous materials are the subject of extensive interest due to their large surface area and multiscale structuralorder. These properties are especially relevant for applications such as catalyst supports in both chemical and electrochemicalsystems. The first part of this study details the synthesis of carbon nanotube–mesoporous silica core–shell composites startingwith single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) through micellar selfassembly.The formation of such a composite structure was verified using scanning electron microscopy and further analysiswas carried out through X-ray diffraction (XRD). The subsequent refinement of the diffraction pattern revealed the silicashell to be of the continuous cubic (Ia3d) MCM48 structure. The mesoporous silica–carbon nanotube core–shell composite was later subjected to high-temperature carbothermal reduction. Subsequent XRD analysis showed that the reduction product was mesoporous silicon carbide (SiC). Thus, this study details a novel synthesis method for mesoporous SiC, which is anattractive material for possible diverse applications such as catalyst supports, intercalation electrodes and other emerginghigh technology areas.

JEONGWOOK SEO¹ SHRIHARI SANKARASUBRAMANIAN¹ BYUNGCHEOL LEE²

1. Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago 60616, USA
2. Quantum Optics Laboratory, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Yuseong-gu 305-353, South Korea

Published

8 February 2018

Manuscript received

19 October 2016

Accepted

9 December 2017