From polymeric "plasticine" to shape-controlled mesoporous carbon.

A soft-phase intercalating process to synthesize mesostructured plasticine by using amphiphilic triblock copolymer F127 as a structure-directing agent, reverse triblock copolymer 25R4 as an intercalating soft matter, and soluble phenolic resin as a carbon source is demonstrated. The "plasticine" has interlayer organic-organic hybrid structure, which is emplastic, sticky, and able to be easily shaped at will. After template removal at 350 degrees C and further carbonization at 600 degrees C, highly ordered mesoporous polymers and carbons can be successively obtained with the maintenance of the original shape. The self-supported, shape-controlled, ordered mesoporous carbon products possess high surface areas (495-777 m(2)/g), large pore volumes (0.32-0.47 cm(3)/g), uniform pore sizes (2.5-4.3 nm) in the nanoscale and hollow tremella-like morphology in the micronscale which may facilitate mass transportation.