Patent ID: 8569391

Claim:
A method of preparing a nanocomposite mesostructure which comprises: (a) providing a block copolymer/ligand-stabilized nanoparticle solution; (b) casting said solution resulting in the formation of a mesostructured nanoparticle-block copolymer hybrid; and (c) heating said hybrid in an inert atmosphere to an elevated temperature for pyrolysis, thereby achieving pyrolysis and resulting in the formation of an ordered porous nanocomposite mesostructure, wherein: in step (a), the block copolymer/ligand-stabilized nanoparticle solution is a block copolymer/ligand-stabilized metallic nanoparticle solution in which nanoparticles are selected from the group consisting of semiconductor, insulator, metal, metal alloy, metal mixture, and intermetallic nanoparticles or combinations of metal, metal alloy, metal mixture and intermetallic nanoparticles; and in step (c) the porous nanocomposite mesostructure is a porous semiconductor-carbon, insulator-carbon, or metal-carbon nanocomposite mesostructure.