A facile synthesis of bimodal mesoporous silica and its replication for bimodal mesoporous carbonElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: experimental procedure and Figs. S1–S4. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b3/b301535a/

Bimodal mesoporous silica material composed of 30-40 nm sized nanoparticles with 3.5 nm sized three-dimensionally interconnected mesopores was synthesized under neutral conditions using sodium silicate as a silica source. Using the bimodal mesoporous silica as a template, bimodal mesoporous carbon having 4 nm sized framework mesopores and approximately 30 nm sized textural pores was synthesized.