Carbon foam composites containing hollow microspheres, reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and montmorillonite (MMT), have been developed as the thermal insulation and EMI shielding layer. The effects of additive amounts of CNTs/ MMT on microstructure and properties of the carbon foam composites were investigated. Results showed that carbon foam composites had hierarchical porous structure, with CNTs and MMT being relatively uniformly dispersed in the composites. The addition of multiscale additives improved the mechanical, electromagnetic shielding effectiveness and thermal insulation properties of carbon foam composites. The composites containing 0.2 wt.% CNTs and 5 wt.% MMT, showed outstanding compressive strength, up to 8.54 MPa, increased by 116% to pure carbon foam. Their electromagnetic shielding effectiveness was as high as 65 dB, increased by 75%. Due to the hierarchical porous structure and MMT’s heat barrier effect, carbon foam composites presented remarkable thermal insulation properties. The minimum thermal conductivity was 0.45 W·m−1·K−1 at 800 °C. Their exceptional thermal protection can also be evidenced by ablation resistance under flame at 1000 °C. Therefore, such multifunctional carbon-based composites are ideal for use in thermal protection.

In this study, the aromatic carbon content of epoxy resin (EP) increased via carbon tar pitch (CTP) modification, and the CTP occurred self-polymerization reaction. The carboxyl and hydroxyl groups of CTP and the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups of EP occurred chemical cross-linking reaction. CTP and graphitization treatment promoted EP CF carbon crystal growth. The graphitization degree of pure EP CF and 40 wt% CTP modified EP CF are 8.42% and 44.21%, respectively. With the increase CTP content, the cell size, ligament junction and density of graphitization modified EP CF gradually increased, while the number of pores and cells gradually decreased. The cell size, ligament junction size and density of 40 wt% CTP modified graphitization EP CF increased to 1200 μm, 280 μm and 0.5033 g/cm3, respectively. EP CF exhibits entangling carbon ribbon and isotropic amorphous carbon. The 40 wt% CTP modified EP CF is composed of evenly distributed amorphous resin carbon and graphite domain CTP carbon. The graphitization modified EP CF improved electrical conductivity, and the electrical conductivity of 40 wt% CTP modified EP CF is 126.6 S/m. The compressive strength can be decided by EP carbon strength and its char yield, and graphitization 40 wt% CTP modified EP CF reached 4.9 MPa. This study provides some basis for preparation and application of CTP modified EP CF.

Hierarchically porous carbon foam composites with highly dispersed Fe2O3 nanoparticles confined in the foam pores, facilely fabricated by hydrolysis-driven emulsion polymerization strategy. The as-generated acidic conditions of Fe3+ hydrolysis could catalyze the polymerization of phenolic resin, and the carbon-based composite materials containing iron oxides were obtained in situ. The structural characterization results show that HCF@Fe2O3 NPs-2 electrode has the largest specific surface area (549 m2/ g) and pore volume (0.46 cm3/ g). Electrochemical results indicates that typical HCF@Fe2O3 NPs-2 electrode displays good capacitive properties. including high specific capacitance (225 F/g at 0.2 A/g current density). Excellent magnification performance (capacity retention rate 80% as current density increases from 0.2 to 10 A/g). At the same time, HCF@SnO2 NPs was successfully synthesized by replacing hydrolyzed tin tetrachloride with ferric chloride. This study provides a new idea for the preparation of metal oxide–carbon matrix composites, and also highlights the potential of such carbon foams in application of energy storage.

The recycling of solid waste materials to fabricate carbon-based electrode materials is of great interest for low-cost green supercapacitors. In this study, porous carbon foam (PCF) was prepared from waste floral foam (WFF) as an electrode material for supercapacitors. WFF was directly carbonized at various temperatures of 600, 800, and 1,000 oC under an inert atmosphere. The WFF-derived PCF (C-WFF) was found to have a specific surface area of 458.99 m2/g with multi-modal pore structures. The supercapacitive behavior of the prepared C-WFF was evaluated using a three-electrode system in a 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. As a result, the prepared C-WFF as an active material showed a high specific capacitance of 206 F/g at 1 A/g, a rate capability of 36.4 % at 20 A/g, a specific power density of 2,500 W/kg at an energy density of 2.68 Wh/kg, and a cycle stability of 99.96 % at 20 A/g after 10,000 cycles. These results indicate that the C-WFF prepared from WFF could be a promising candidate as an electrode material for high-performance green supercapacitors.

Monolithic carbon foams with hierarchical porosity were prepared from polyurethane templates and resol precursors. Mesoporosity was achieved through the use of soft templating with surfactant Pluronic F127, and macroporosity from the polyurethane foams was retained. Conditions to obtain high porosity materials were optimized. The best materials have high specific surface areas (380 and 582 m2 g–1, respectively) and high electrical conductivity, which make them good candidates for supports in sensors. These materials showed an almost linear dependence between the potential and the pH of aqueous solutions.

Today, the modification of carbon foam for high performance remains a major issue in the environment and energy industries. One promising way to solve this problem is the optimization of the pore structure for desired properties as well as for efficient performance. In this study, using a sol-gel process followed by carbonization in an inert atmosphere, hollow spherical carbon foam was prepared using resorcinol and formaldehyde precursors catalyzed by 4-aminobenzoic acid; the effect of carbonization temperature and re-immersion treatment on the pore structure and characteristics of the hollow spherical carbon foam was investigated. As the carbonization temperature increased, the porosity and average pore diameter were found to decrease but the compression strength and electrical conductivity dramatically increased in the temperature range of this study (700˚C to 850˚C). The significant differences of X-ray diffraction patterns obtained from the carbon foams carbonized under different temperatures implied that the degree of crystallinity greatly affects the characteristics of the carbon form. Also, the number of re-impregnations of carbon form in the resorcinol-formaldehyde resin was varied from 1 to 10 times, followed by re-carbonization at 800˚C for 2 hours under argon gas flow. As the number of re-immersion treatments increased, the porosity decreased while the compression strength improved by about four times when re-impregnation was repeated 10 times. These results imply the possibility of customizing the characteristics of carbon foam by controlling the carbonization and re-immersion conditions.

Herein, macroporous carbon materials were readily prepared by carbonization of cured body of resorcinol and formaldehyde using poly(methyl methacrylate) colloid microspheres which were employed as the template in the gelation of resorcinol with formaldehyde. The gel in the water was solvent exchanged with methanol and the wet gel was dried. After carbonization of the template-gel composite at , it was found that pores were left corresponding to the size of the template, yielding carbon materials with a fine porous structure with enlarged surface area and significant porosity. Properties of the carbon foams including the structure, morphology, thermal stability, and porosity were investigated. Finally, it was concluded that the method using polymer colloids as the template provided a facile route to prepare carbon foams.

In recent decades, biofiltration has been widely accepted for the treatment of contaminated air stream containing low concentration of odorous compounds or volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, conventional biofilters packed with flexible synthetic polyurethane (PU) foam carriers were operated to remove toluene from a contaminated air stream. PU foams containing various amounts of pulverized activated carbon (PAC) were synthesized for the biofilter media and tested for toluene removal. Four biofilter columns were operated for 60 days to remove gaseous toluene from a contaminated air stream. During the biofiltration experiment, inlet toluene concentration was in the range of 0-150 ppm and EBRT (i.e., empty bed residence time) was kept at 26-42 seconds. Pressure drop of the biofilter bed was less than 3 mm H2O/m filter bed. The maximum removal capacity of toluene in the biofilters packed with PU-PAC foam was in the order of column II (PAC = 7.08%) > column III (PAC = 8.97%) > column I (PAC = 4.95%) > column IV (PAC = 13.52%), while the complete removal capacity was in the order of column II > column I > column III > column IV. The better biofiltration performance in column II was attributed to higher porosity providing favorable conditions for microbial growth. The results of biodegradation kinetic analysis showed that PU-PAC foam with 7.08% of PAC content had higher maximum removal rate (Vm = 14.99 g toluene/kg dry material/day) than the other PU-PAC foams. In overall, the performance of biofiltration might be affected by the structure and physicochemical properties of PU foam induced by PAC content.