Triconstituent co-assembly synthesis of N, S-doped carbon-silica nanospheres with smooth and rough surfaces

Multifunctional porous nanospheres are desirable for many applications, but their synthesis involves multistep procedures and their simplification still remains a challenge. Herein, we demonstrate a facile synthesis of polymer-silica nanospheres by using an extended Stober method via triconstituent co-assembly of 3-aminophenol, formaldehyde, and bis[3-(triethoxysilyl) propyl] tetrasulfide followed by copolymerization. N, S-doped carbon-silica nanospheres with either smooth or rough surface can be obtained by direct carbonization of the polymer-silica nanospheres. The carbon-silica spheres feature multifunctional properties and exhibit very good performance as adsorbents for CO2 capture (67 cm(3) g(-1) at 0 +/- 1 degrees C and 1.0 bar) and as supercapacitor electrodes with high specific capacitance (221 F g (1)). This strategy could pave the way for design of carbon nanostructures at molecular level for multi-purpose applications.