Synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous hollow carbon nanospheres with a high nitrogen content: A sustainable synthetic strategy using energetic precursors

Improving the recovery and utilization efficiency of obsolete energetic materials (EMs) is essential for addressing environmental pollution. In this sense, a sustainable one-step high-temperature carbonization strategy using 2,2′,4,4′,6,6′-hexanitrostilbene-based (HNS-based) energetic hollow nanospheres as energetic precursors was used to fabricate nitrogen-doped (N-doped) porous hollow carbon nanospheres with a high N content. The experimental results suggested carbon-based materials with a hollow spherical framework nanostructure can be obtained by the high-temperature carbonization of energetic precursors. The obtained samples possessed N-doped contents of 19.54 wt% at the carbonization temperature of 600 °C and even 6.10 wt% at 900 °C. In addition, hollow carbon nanospheres with a large number of hierarchical pores and a high surface area (503.5 m²/g) were produced at 900 °C. This strategy prevented unnecessary safety risks and improved recovery and utilization efficiency in a more sustainable and economic manner than conventional disposal methods of EMs. Therefore, this work provides a proof-of-principle concept for the fabrication of carbon-based fundamental functional materials from obsolete EMs.