Synthesis of nanorattles composed of gold nanoparticles encapsulated in mesoporous carbon and polymer shells

In this study, we fabricated new spherical silica templates with submicrometer sized solid cores containing an encapsulated Au nanoparticle surrounded by a mesoporous shell structure. Hollow spherical carbon and polymer capsules, containing gold nanoparticles, were synthesized using these silica templates. The resulting carbon capsules inversely replicated the structure of the silica template and contained uniform pores with a narrow pore size distribution centered at 3.8 nm. These carbon capsules exhibited a BET surface area of >1000 m(2) g(-1) and a total pore volume of >1.0 cm(3) g(-1). In addition, hollow polymer capsules having a well-defined pore size were fabricated using a similar synthetic procedure.