Method for making thin carbon foam electrodes

Patent · 31 December 1998

OSTI ID:872423

Pekala, Richard W ^[1]; Mayer, Steven T ^[2]; Kaschmitter, James L ^[3]; Morrison, Robert L ^[4]

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1. Pleasant Hill, CA
2. San Leandro, CA
3. Pleasanton, CA
4. Modesto, CA

A method for fabricating thin, flat carbon electrodes by infiltrating highly porous carbon papers, membranes, felts, metal fibers/powders, or fabrics with an appropriate carbon foam precursor material. The infiltrated carbon paper, for example, is then cured to form a gel-saturated carbon paper, which is subsequently dried and pyrolyzed to form a thin sheet of porous carbon. The material readily stays flat and flexible during curing and pyrolyzing to form thin sheets. Precursor materials include polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polymethylacrylonitrile (PMAN), resorcinol/formaldehyde, catechol/formaldehyde, phenol/formaldehyde, etc., or mixtures thereof. These thin films are ideal for use as high power and energy electrodes in batteries, capacitors, and fuel cells, and are potentially useful for capacitive deionization, filtration and catalysis.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• Assignee: Regents of University of California (Oakland, CA)
• Patent Number(s): US 5932185
• OSTI ID: 872423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/423/264/
appropriate
batteries
capacitive
capacitive deionization
capacitors
carbon
carbon electrode
carbon electrodes
carbon foam
carbon paper
catalysis
catechol
cells
cured
curing
deionization
dried
electrodes
energy
etc
example
fabricating
fabrics
felts
fibers
films
filtration
flat
flexible
foam
foam electrode
foam electrodes
foam precursor
form
formaldehyde
fuel
fuel cell
fuel cells
gel-saturated
highly
highly porous
ideal
infiltrated
infiltrated carbon
infiltrating
material
materials
membranes
metal
metal fiber
metal fibers
method
mixtures
pan
paper
papers
phenol
pman
polyacrylonitrile
polymethylacrylonitrile
porous
porous carbon
potentially
potentially useful
powders
power
precursor
precursor material
precursor materials
pyrolyzed
pyrolyzing
readily
resorcinol
sheet
sheets
stays
subsequently
useful