Tailored synthesis from rhombic dodecahedron to spherical ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles via one-step strategy

Owing to the shallow understanding of the formation mechanism of ordered mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (OMCNs), there are still many obstacles to the synthesis of OMCNs with controllable morphology by a simple and efficient method. Herein, we first propose a universal mechanism for OMCNs formation, that is, the composite micelle units self-assembly mechanism. Under the guidance of this mechanism, the inexpensive F127 was selected as the soft template, resorcinol and hexamethylenetetramine were used as the carbon source, and a series of dispersions were synthesized for the first time under acidic condition by the one-step aqueous solution method. Interestingly, OMCNs could be transformed from spherical to rhombic dodecahedron by adjusting the amount of F127. Moreover, the particle size of the obtained polymer nanoparticles (PNs) exhibited a linear relationship with the amount of F127 in a wide range ( W F127  = 0.25 g–0.70 g), and the linear equation is y = − 1523.6 x + 1055.8 (R 2  = 0.99), which can realize the customized synthesis of PNs. As a demonstration of their versatility, a simple and novel method was developed to prepare magnetic Fe-OMCNs by iron doping of PNs by oxidation reaction of iron. These findings have pioneering implications for promoting the development of OMCNs.