Hollow carbons have emerged as a new class of porous carbon materials, showing promise in a variety of areas. However, their morphology has been limited to spherical shapes, with the carbon shell possibly limiting access to their inner surfaces and utilization. Herein, we report a new type of hollow carbon material consisting of non-spherical, adamantane-shaped, hierarchically micro- and macro-porous, N-doped carbon nanoframes (mM-NCs) by exploiting selective etching and pseudomorphic thermal conversion of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8). The mM-NCs showed superior performance as adsorbents for large dye molecules and as catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction relative to macropore-free N-doped carbons, which can be attributed to the presence of macropores, fully utilizable pore surfaces, and nitrogen species.
Publisher
Asian Crystallographic Association (AsCA) and the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand (SCANZ)