Synthesis of carbon tubes with mesoporous wall structure using designed silica tubes as templatesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TEM image of a carbon tube showing disordered mesoporous walls. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b2/b212336c/

Hollow silica tubes with mesoporous wall structure were synthesized through the sol-gel reactions of tetraethoxysilane and n-octadecyltrimethoxysilane (TEOS/C18-TMS) on the surface of ammonium dl-tartrate crystals. Novel hollow carbon tubes with mesoporous walls and rectangular-shaped channels were fabricated using the silica tubes as templates.