The fabrication and application of magnetite coated N-doped carbon microtubes hybrid nanomaterials with sandwich structures.

In this work, N-doped carbon microtubes have been synthesized using MoO3 microrods as the sacrificial template. Then, the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were integrated into N-doped carbon microtubes to obtain triple-walled Fe3O4@N-doped carbon@Fe3O4 microtubes via a high temperature decomposition process. Due to the coordination ability of nitrogen and the unique structures of the N-doped carbon microtubes, the Fe3O4 nanoparticles were closely attached to both the external and internal surfaces of the N-doped carbon microtubes and thus, assured a relatively good response to an external magnetic field. All these features make the nanocomposites well fitted for adsorption, catalysis, energy storage etc. Moreover, the N-doped carbon microtubes can be used as versatile templates to synthesize other triple-walled composites M@N-doped carbon@M microtubes (such as M = Cu(Cu2O), MnO2, MoS2), which greatly widens the applications of N-doped carbon microtubes.