Self-Expansion Construction of Ultralight Carbon Nanotube Aerogels with a 3D and Hierarchical Cellular Structure

Yufeng Luo, Shu Luo, Hengcai Wu, Mengya Li, Ke Wang, Lingjia Yan, Kaili Jiang, Qunqing Li, Shoushan Fan, Jiaping Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

A novel and simple strategy is developed to construct ultralight and 3D pure carbon nanotube (CNT) aerogels by the spontaneous expansion of superaligned CNT films soaked in a piranha (mixed H2SO4 and H2O2) solution, followed by cryodesiccation. The macroscopic CNT aerogels have an extremely low apparent density (0.12 mg cm−3), ultrahigh porosity (99.95%), high specific surface area (298 m2 g−1), and a hierarchical cellular structure with giant and ultrathin CNT sheets as cell walls. The pure CNT aerogels show high adsorption abilities for various kinds of solvents, and have great potential in widespread applications such as energy storage, catalysis, and bioengineering.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1700966
JournalSmall
Volume13
Issue number28
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 26 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Keywords

  • aerogels
  • carbon nanotubes
  • hierarchical structures
  • self-expansion
  • ultralight

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