Patent ID: 7718156

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a carbon nanomaterial, comprising: forming a precursor mixture comprising a carbon precursor and a plurality of templating nanoparticles, the templating nanoparticles comprising a catalytic metal; causing or allowing the carbon precursor to polymerize around the catalytic templating nanoparticles to form a polymerized carbon precursor material; carbonizing the polymerized carbon precursor material to form an intermediate carbon material comprising a plurality of carbon nanostructures, amorphous carbon, and optionally remaining catalytic metal; purifying the intermediate carbon material by removing at least a portion of the amorphous carbon and optionally a portion of any remaining catalytic metal, wherein the purified intermediate carbon material has a plurality of functional groups on the surface thereof; and removing at least a portion of the functional groups from the surface of the purified intermediate carbon material by at least one of: (i) heating the purified intermediate carbon material to a temperature greater than about 100° C.; and/or (ii) treating the purified intermediate carbon material with a base, the carbon nanomaterial comprising carbon nanostructures having a BET specific surface area greater than about 120 m 2 /g, the carbon nanomaterial comprising a plurality of carbon nanospheres, each nanosphere comprising a multi-walled outer structure and a center that is hollow or filled with a catalytic templating particle.