Surface Charge-Driven Nanoengineering of Monodisperse Carbon Nanospheres with Tunable Surface Roughness

Direct pyrolysis of polymer nanospheres usually leads to severe particle aggregation, uncontrolled surface morphology, and poor solvent dispersibility of the carbonaceous analogues. The successful manipulation of surface roughness, surficial mesopores, and water dispersibility of carbon nanospheres (CNSs) is essential to meet their structural varieties and practical applications. In this study, a facile, surface charge-driven, interfacial assembly method is reported for the synthesis of CNSs with the abovementioned properties, which involve the interfacial assembly between hetero-charged silica nanoparticles and polymer nanospheres process. Noticeably, the surface area and pore volume of the resultant rough-surface CNSs can be augmented remarkably compared to those of direct-pyrolyzed CNSs. Moreover, the cooperation of uniformity and rough-surface morphology imparts CNSs with good dispersion stability and more adsorption sites for efficiently removing and recovering water pollutants, e.g., fluorescent derivative fluorescein 5(6)-isothiocyanate; thus, CNSs contribute greatly to environment protection and resource cyclic utilization. These findings may set the foundations for designing and constructing multifarious morphological carbon nanomaterials, with great monodispersity, surficial mesopores and rough surface, for various applications.