Abstract
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•Nanoporous block copolymers were used to be complexed with gold precursors.•3D carbonaceous networks decorated with tiny gold nanoparticles were synthesized.•The synthesis was enabled by one-step carbonization.•The diameter of the well-distributed gold nanoparticles was as small as ≈15 nm.
Porous carbonaceous networks decorated with functional nanoparticles are highly demanded in diverse applications as their good conductivity nature as well as cheap source offers a cost-affordable alternative among numerous options. In this work, we report a new and facile strategy to prepare three-dimensional (3D) Au/C networks comprised of carbonaceous skeletons and tiny gold nanoparticles by directly carbonizing the nanoporous block copolymer films complexed with the gold salts. The robust complexation makes it ease of generating numerous dispersed gold nanoparticles with an average diameter as small as ≈15 nm confined in the carbonaceous frameworks after carbonization. Thus-developed Au/C networks are highly expected to find widespread applications such as catalysis, sensing, etc.