Solid-state synthesis of ordered mesoporous carbon catalysts via a mechanochemical assembly through coordination cross-linking

Ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) have demonstrated great potential in catalysis, and as supercapacitors and adsorbents. Since the introduction of the organic-organic self-assembly approach in 2004/2005 until now, the direct synthesis of OMCs is still limited to the wet processing of phenol-formaldehyde polycondensation, which involves soluble toxic precursors, and acid or alkali catalysts, and requires multiple synthesis steps, thus restricting the widespread application of OMCs. Herein, we report a simple, general, scalable and sustainable solid-state synthesis of OMCs and nickel OMCs with uniform and tunable mesopores (similar to 4-10 nm), large pore volumes (up to 0.96 cm(3) g(-1)) and high-surface areas exceeding 1,000m(2) g(-1), based on a mechanochemical assembly between polyphenol-metal complexes and triblock co-polymers. Nickel nanoparticles (similar to 5.40 nm) confined in the cylindrical nanochannels show great thermal stability at 600 degrees C. Moreover, the nickel OMCs offer exceptional activity in the hydrogenation of bulky molecules (similar to 2 nm).