Preparing carbon black aerogel quickly by chemical vapor deposition

Carbon black aerogel, a new type of carbon aerogel made of carbon black, has been prepared rapidly and inexpensively by chemical vapor deposition without catalyst. In just 5 h, more than 0.8 kg of carbon black aerogel were obtained from a mixture of propane and argon. With a well-developed branching network structure and good graphitization, carbon black aerogel has a low density (0.11 g/cm3), high compressive strength (0.543 MPa), extremely low thermal conductivity (0.049 W/(m·K)) and outstanding super-hydrophobic properties. A discussion also is given about the process of forming aerogels using carbon black as the base material. This finding may explore a cost-effective method of fabricating carbon aerogels and enrich the variety of carbon materials available.