Preparation and Application of Carbon Aerogels

Abstract

Carbon aerogels are nanostructured porous carbonaceous materials with high specific surface areas that may exceed 1000 m2 g−1 and relatively low electric resistance of about 8.7 S cm−1. In the past decade, carbon aerogels have attracted much attention because of their extraordinary properties and potential applications in electrochemistry, hydrogen storage, adsorption, thermal insulation, biomedicine, and catalysis. Thereby, many studies have been carried out on their synthesis and characterization. As of recently, carbon aerogels have been successfully prepared via ambient drying in industrial scale and have been applied in high energy density, high power density supercapacitors. This chapter summarizes recent developments in the synthesis and applications of different types of carbon aerogels.