Controllable Preparation of Core-Shell Composites and Their Templated Hollow Carbons Based on a Well-Orchestrated Molecular Bridge-Linked Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Interface

Controlling the interfacial effect is facing challenges because of the weak interactions between the inorganic and the organic materials. We found that the silane coupling agents with -NH₂ groups (e.g., KH550) play a key role as a molecular bridge that links an inorganic silica template with an organic precursor (i.e., pyrrole) in the process of constructing a spherical silica core-polypyrrole shell structure. The molecular bridge is also suitable for inorganic core templates with cube or rod shapes for the construction of different core-shell structures. These template core-polymeric shell structures can be transformed into well-defined hollow carbons after carbonization and template removal. The outer diameter, hollow-core size, and carbon shell thickness of hollow carbon materials (e.g., hollow carbon spheres) could be facilely controlled by changing the template size or the pyrrole amount. We believe that our work will provide a guideline for the preparation of well-orchestrated carbon-based composites and their templated hollow carbons.