Spatially confined magnesiothermic reduction induced uniform mesoporous hollow silicon carbide nanospheres for high-performance supercapacitors.

In this work, mesoporous hollow SiC nanospheres (MHS-SiC) are successfully fabricated via in situ magnesiothermic reduction of mesoporous hollow carbon-silica nanospheres (MHS-SiO 2 /C), which inherit a unique interconnected network on the shell. The specially designed interpenetrating shell structure provides an accessible interface between Si and C elements in a confined nanospace during magnesiothermic reduction, and thus well-dispersed MHS-SiC nanospheres (∼95 nm in diameter) with interconnected mesoporous shells and high specific surface area (868 m 2 g -1 ) can be obtained. For practical applications, the obtained MHS-SiC electrode exhibits a high-rate capacitance and long cycling stability for supercapacitors.