Carbon based porous materials from particle stabilized wet foams

Abstract

In this work, a method is proposed for the production of carbon porous materials based on the foaming of a carbon colloidal dispersion in the presence of a short chain ionic surfactant (CTAB) and Poly(vinyl alcohol) followed by the in situ polymerization by cross-linking with 2,5-dimethoxy-2,5-dihydrofuran (DHF). The particle stabilized wet foams are used as templates for the gel-casting providing porous materials with carbon particles mainly distributed at the surface of the cells. This sample so obtained is then submitted to a high temperature treatment to remove all organic components from the matrix and get a compact carbon solid foam. The morphology of the samples obtained according to this procedure have been analyzed via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and different aspects regarding both the procedure and the composition of the initial dispersion have been investigated such as the role of the surfactant, the dependence on the particle concentration and the temperature adopted during the thermal treatment.