Preparation and Characteristics of Carbon Foam

Abstract

The carbonized plastic foam containing inorganic filler is prepared. The method of preparation of this carbon foam is considerably simple, and it has excellent properties, such as low density, high thermal insulation, high chemical resistance, comparatively high mechanical strength and resistance to air oxydation.The preparation method of this carbon foam is as follows: the mixture of resin, curing agent, surface activating agent, bubbling agent and filler are mixed during hot roll, then the products are pulverized, poured into a covered box and cured at 150 °C. The cured raw foam is carbonized at the desired temperature in the atmosphere of inert gas.The samples of carbonized phenol foam containing glass and titanium white powder heattreated at 1000 °C are described. The physical properties, resistance to air oxydation, compressive strength, and thermal conductivity are measured.Compressive strength of the carbon foam containing glass powder up to 20% in the raw state increases with the elevation of glass content, but that of the carbon foam containing more than 20% of glass powder in the raw foam decreases with the elevation of glass content. In the case of the carbon foam containing titanium white powder, compressive strength increases with the elevation of titanium content.True density of the carbon foam with either glass or titanium filler has the same tendency to compressive strength as a function of filler content. Bulk density and thermal conductivity of the carbon foam containing either filler increase with the elevation of filler content.For the carbon foam containing glass powder, resistance to air oxydation increases with the elevation of glass content; for the carbon foam containing titanium white powder, it is considerably high, but the best resistance to air oxydation in our experiment is obtained in the case of the carbon foam containing about 20% of titanium white.