Spontaneous template approach towards nitrogenous multi-shelled hollow carbon spheres with unique onion-like architecture

Preparing multi-shelled hollow carbon spheres with highly complex and well-defined structures remains challenging, especially through facile synthesis routes. Herein, we propose a spontaneous template approach to achieve one-step efficient preparation of nitrogenous multi-shelled hollow carbon spheres with onion-like morphology and architecture (NMHCS). This synthetic route is characterized by the interaction of protonated melamine and Aerosol OT (AOT) based on Coulomb force to construct a “anionic-cationic surfactant” and spontaneously form vesicles. The packing parameter of surfactant was regulated by introducing 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene to obtain the multilamellar vesicles templates, which direct the synthesis of target multi-shelled hollow carbon spheres. Impressively, NMHCS with a unique multi-shelled hollow structure, a high surface area of 592 m g, a large pore volume of 0.56 cm g, a hierarchical pore structure, and abundant nitrogen content of 10 wt% has shown great application potential in the field of CO adsorption and lithium-ion batteries.