Nanocarbon Foam

This thesis is a continuous effort contributed to the field of developing a new type of functional porous materials - Nanocarbon Foam (NCF) by crosslinking multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) into networks in three-dimensional (3D). Synthetic routes and characterizations of NCF, and their applications as strain-gauge sensors and electrode materials in lithium-air (Li-air) battery are described. In this research, the first accomplishment is proposing a robust methodology for creating superealstic 3D macroscopic NCF with controlled cellular structure. The key contributions contain: (1) understanding the premise of the design that gives the NCF with desired structure and porosity; (2) designing fabrication protocol for NCFs with controlled densities and macroscopic structure; (3) fabricating varied NCF with tunable porosity and structures, which in turn will endow the NCF with different characteristics. This experimental methodology for systematic and quantitative investigation of the processing-structure relationships provides a means for the fabrication optimization of NCF with desired structures. Though the mechanical, electronic, and thermal properties of CNTs have been extensively studied, for NCF that is a mixture of pristine and functionalized CNTs, it will not only have the collective behavior of the individual tubes, but will also have properties generated from the interactions between the tubes and engineered components. To understand the structure-properties relationship of NCF, the second accomplishment is studying the properties of obtained NCFs. Density, specific surface area, porosity, compressive behavior, mechanical robustness, electrical and electromechanical properties of NCF have been characterized in details. For comparison, properties originated from cellular structures built of other materials, such as polymeric foam, fiber aerogels, etc., are compared with that of NCF. Moreover, some engineering applications of NCF have been discussed. With the unique features of NCFs, my proposed future work will focus on understanding porous structure formation and resulted unique properties by the means of scientific modelling. In addition, NCF will be explored as the skeleton for fabricating hybrid systems.