Facile synthesis of polymer and carbon spheres decorated with highly dispersed metal nanoparticles.

Metal nanoparticle-decorated carbon spheres (mn-CSs) are prepared by combining one-pot hydrothermal synthesis and post-synthesis modification. The former sol-gel type process is employed to obtain heteroatom-containing polymer spheres (PSs), which easily attract metal species that, during thermal treatment, are initially converted to nanoparticle-decorated PSs and finally to mn-CSs.