Aqueous monosaccharide solutions including glucose or fructose have been hydrothermally treated in a closed system to form colloidal carbon spheres. In-situ Raman and 13 C NMR have been used to quantify the intramolecular dehydration moiety, HMF, as an intermediate. An aqueous glucose solution forms a carbon sphere via an intermolecular dehydration route without forming HMF during initial hydrothermal treatment and followed by carbonization at 170-180 °C. However, an aqueous fructose solution initially forms HMF by intramolecular dehydration at 120-140 °C. Upon subsequent polymerization, microscopic carbon-containing spheres assemble to larger spheres, thereby generating a grain-like surface morphology. The carbon sphere contains a dense hydrophobic carbon core and a hydrophilic shell.

Articles you may be interested inComposition dependence of the viscosity and other physical properties in the arsenic selenide glass systemThe configurational entropy theory of glass formation is used to derive the composition dependence of the glass transition temperature (Tg) and of supercooled liquid transport properties for binary mixtures which obey the laws of regular solutions. The relations between expressions derived subject to specified approximations and known empirical equations are shown, and the parameters of the latter are thereby identified with defined measurable quantities. The predicted composition dependence of Tg is compared with experimental data from binary mixtures with satisfactory agreement.