Manipulating Particle Chemistry for Hollow Carbon-based Nanospheres: Synthesis Strategies, Mechanistic Insights, and Electrochemical Applications

Hollow carbon-based nanospheres (HCNs) have been demonstrated to show promising potential in a large variety of research fields, particularly electrochemical devices for energy conversion/storage. The current synthetic protocols for HCNs largely rely on template-based routes (TBRs), which are conceptually straightforward in creating hollow structures but challenged by the time-consuming operations with a low yield in product as well as serious environmental concerns caused by hazardous etching agents. Meanwhile, they showed inadequate ability to build complex carbon-related architectures. Innovative strategies for HCNs free from extra templates thus are highly desirable and are expected to not only ensure precise control of the key structural parameters of hollow architectures with designated functionalities, but also be environmentally benign and scalable approaches suited for their practical applications.