Researchers at the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Micrscale (HFNL), Univeristy of Science and Technology of China used a low-cost biomass, bacterial cellulose, which can be produced industrially in a microbial fermentation process, to fabricate the aerogels. The resulting material, composed of interconnected three-dimensional networks of cellulose nanofibers, exhibits remarkable electrical properties, extraordinary strength and efficiency in heat conduction.
Small pieces of cellulose nanofibers were trimmed, freeze-dried and then pyrolyzed at 1300 degrees Celsius under argon to convert the cellulose into graphitic carbon. The result was ultralight nanofibrous carbon aerogel with outstanding compressibility, which is impossible in case of common aerogels due to their fragility. The high surface reactivity of the carbon nanofibers in aerogel form, extremely high porosity and excellent mechanical properties predispose this material to use in many industries such as easy dyes removal or selective adsorbents for oil-spill cleanup or for 3D composite, conductive gels, catalysts support, electrodes for lithium-ion batteries or supercapacitors.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "makerspaceca" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to makerspaceca...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.