An easy soft-template route to synthesis of wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten carbide/carbon composites

Abstract Wormhole-like mesoporous tungsten carbide/carbon (WC/C) composites can be prepared by an easy method that combines emulsion processing with triblock copolymer self-assembly strategy, followed by a high-temperature carbothermal reduction. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and N 2 sorption techniques were employed to characterize the mesoporous WC/C composites. The results show that the resultant materials have a wormhole-like mesostructure containing nanoscale (∼40 nm) tungsten carbide particles, and high surface areas (up to 314.9 cm 2 /g). It is proposed that a general assemble procedures are responsible for the wormhole-like mesoporous WC/C composites.