PNNL

Abstract

The synthesis of materials with targeted size and shape has attracted much attention. Specifically, colloidal spheres with targeted and uniform sizes have opened the door for a variety of applications associated with drug delivery, and manipulation of light (photonic band-gap crystals). Surface modification is a key to realizing many of these applications owing to the inherent inert surface.The remarkable transformation of carbohydrate molecules including sugars to homogeneous carbon spheres is found to readily occur by a dehydration mechanism and subsequent sequestering in aqueous solutions that are heated at 160-180oC in a pressurized vessel. Under such conditions, these molecules actually dehydrate even though they are dissolved in water. Size-tunable metal and metal oxides with uniform shells have also been prepared by using carbon spheres as templates.