Tongji University, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, Shanghai 20092, China)
Funds:
National Natural Science Foundation of China(51102184,51172163),National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China(2009BAC62B02),Program for Young Excellent Talents if Tongij University (2010KJ068)and Doctoral fund of Ministry of Education of China (20090072110047, 20100072110054).
Carbon aerogels were synthesized at room temperature by a sol-gel polymerization route using resorcinol and formaldehyde as precursors, acetonitrile as solvent and hydrochloric acid as catalyst, followed by CO2 supercritical drying and carbonization. FT-IR, SEM, XRD and nitrogen adsorption were used to characterize the microstructure of the aerogels. Results showed that the carbon aerogels are graphite-like amorphous materials with nano-skeleton networks formed by nanoparticles around 40-70 nm in diameter, whose specific surface area is up to 1 300 m2·g-1 and lowest density about 0.050 g/cm3. The heat of condensation and the catalytic action of hydrochloric acid made it possible to form gels at room temperature. The high surface area and low density of the as-prepared carbon aerogels were ascribed to a strong interaction between acetonitrile and —OH groups by hydrogen bonding.