Silicon Carbide with Uniformly Sized Spherical Mesopores from Butoxylated Silica Nanoparticles Template

A colloidal solution of uniformly sized butoxylated SiO2 nanoparticles in o-xylene was prepared from Ludox HS-30 sol. Using these nanoparticles as a template for nanocasting and polycarbosilane (PCS) as a replica precursor, mesoporous SiC was produced by thermal decomposition of the PCS. More precisely, our synthesis allowed porous SiC to be obtained with uniformly sized (11 nm) spherical pores, high surface area (up to 800 m(3)/g), and large pore volume (up to 1.25 cm(3)/g). It is anticipated that such SiC with well-defined texture will find major applications as a mesoporous support for nanosized metal particles in exothermic catalytic reactions.