SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CARBON AEROGEL NANOCOMPOSITES CONTAINING DOUBLE-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES
Carbon aerogels (CAs) are novel mesoporous materials with applications such as electrode materials for super capacitors and rechargeable batteries, adsorbents and advanced catalyst supports. To expand the potential application for these unique materials, recent efforts have focused on the design of CA composites with the goal of modifying the structure, conductivity or catalytic activity of the aerogel. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess a number of intrinsic properties that make them promising materials in the design of composite materials. In addition, the large aspect ratios (100-1000) of CNTs means that small additions (less than 1 vol%) of CNTs can produce a composite with novel properties. Therefore, the homogeneous incorporation of CNTs into a CA matrix provides a viable route to new carbon-based composites with enhanced thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. One of the main challenges in preparing CNT composites is achieving a good uniform dispersion of nanotubes throughout the matrix. CAs are typically prepared through the sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol with formaldehyde in aqueous solution to produce organic gels that are supercritically dried and subsequently pyrolyzed in an inert atmosphere. Therefore, a significant issue in fabricating CA-CNT composites is dispersing the CNTs in the aqueous reaction media. Previous work in the design of CACNT composites have addressed this issue by using organic solvents in the sol-gel reaction to facilitate dispersion of the CNTs. To our knowledge, no data has been published involving the preparation of CA composites containing CNTs dispersed in aqueous media. In this report, we describe a new method for the synthesis of monolithic CA-CNT composites that involves the sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde in an aqueous solution containing a surfactant-stabilized dispersion of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNT). One of the advantages of this approach is that it allows one to uniformly distribute CNTs in the CA matrix without compromising the synthetic control that is afforded by traditional organic sol-gel chemistry over the CA structure. We will describe the physical characterization of these novel materials as well as the influence of DWNT loading on the electrical conductivity of the CA composite.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 945156
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-CONF-402282; TRN: US200902%%1257
- Resource Relation:
- Journal Volume: 24; Journal Issue: 17; Conference: Presented at: ACS, Philadelphia, PA, United States, Aug 17 - Aug 21, 2008
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
08 HYDROGEN
ADSORBENTS
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
ASPECT RATIO
CAPACITORS
CARBON
CATALYST SUPPORTS
CHEMISTRY
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRODES
FORMALDEHYDE
INERT ATMOSPHERE
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
NANOTUBES
ORGANIC SOLVENTS
POLYMERIZATION
RESORCINOL
SYNTHESIS