Direct fabrication of well-aligned free-standing mesoporous carbon nanofiber arrays on silicon substrates

Using nonionic triblock copolymer F127 as a soft template and AAO membranes as hard templates, well-aligned free-standing mesoporous carbon nanofiber arrays have been fabricated on silicon wafer through a confined self-assembly process. Hexagonally arranged circular mesochannels locate at the edge of the carbon nanofibers; and some well-ordered columnar oriented mesochannels are wrapped by circular mesochannels at the center of the nanofibers. The surface interaction with the alumina pore walls is probably responsible for the formation of both circular and columnar oriented mesochannels.