We report a new, low-cost and simple top-down approach, "sodium-cutting", to cut and open nanostructures deposited on a nonplanar surface on a large scale. The feasibility of sodium-cutting was demonstrated with the successfully cutting open of ∼100% carbon nanospheres into nanobowls on a large scale from Sn@C nanospheres for the first time.

In this paper, we demonstrate a facile design of ZnS-based heterostructures tailored by versatile glucose-derived carbon ensembles, including carbon dots (CDs) and thin carbon shells, via hydrothermal synthesis. Tuning the content of glucose allows interesting and simple conversion from CDs to carbon shells on the surfaces of ZnS nanospheres. The as-formed ZnS/carbon nanocomposites exhibit an e...

In this work, a series of hollow carbon nanospheres simultaneously doped with N and Fe-containing species are prepared by Fe(3+)-mediated polymerization of dopamine on SiO2 nanospheres, carbonization and subsequent KOH etching of the SiO2 template. The electrochemical properties of the hollow nanospheres as nonprecious-metal electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are characterized...

Femtosecond lasers (FSL) are playing an increasingly important role in materials research, characterization, and modification. Due to an extremely short pulse width, interactions of FSL irradiation with solid surfaces attract special interest, and a number of unusual phenomena resulted in the formation of new materials are expected. Here, we report on a new nanostructure observed after the inte...

Fabrication of monodisperse porous polymeric nanospheres with diameters below 500 nm remains a great challenge, due to serious crosslinking between neighboring nanospheres during pore-making process. Here we show how a versatile hypercrosslinking strategy can be used to prepare monodisperse microporous polystyrene nanospheres (MMPNSs) with diameters as low as ca. 190 nm. In our approach, an unr...

Carbon nanospheres (CNSs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as nanoadditives were used to modify lithium hydroxide monohydrate for low temperature chemical heat storage application. The lithium hydroxide monohydrate particles were well dispersed on the nanoscale level, and the diameter of nanoparticles was about 20–30 nm in the case of the carbon nanospheres and 50–100 nm the case of t...

Hollow core, mesoporous shell carbon nanospheres (HCMSs) with large bimodal mesopores (6.4 and 3.1 nm) and high surface area (1704 m(2) g(-1)) have been synthesized by a triconstituent surface co-assembly of monodisperse silica nanospheres method. The resulted HCMS show a high specific capacity of 251 F g(-1) at 50 mV s(-1) in 2 M H(2)SO(4) and long cyclic life.

In this research, quantities of carbon nanospheres (CNSs) were prepared with a convenient and low cost method at atmospheric pressure and functionalized with the xanthate group in a simple way. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In addition, the c...

Exceptionally large surface area and well-defined nanostructure are both critical in the field of nanoporous carbons for challenging energy and environmental issues. The pursuit of ultrahigh surface area while maintaining definite nanostructure remains a formidable challenge because extensive creation of pores will undoubtedly give rise to the damage of nanostructures, especially below 100 nm. ...

Synthesis of highly aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with controlled positions is an important step toward manufacturable ultradense carbon nanotube integrated circuits. One of the most promising synthesis methods is chemical vapor deposition (CVD), in which small catalyst particles with diameters of approximately a few nanometers determine the position and diameter of SWNTs.1 Sig...