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

doi:10.1002/smll.201700966

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

Small. 2017 Jul;13(28). doi: 10.1002/smll.201700966. Epub 2017 May 26.

Authors

Yufeng Luo¹, Shu Luo¹, Hengcai Wu², Mengya Li², Ke Wang², Lingjia Yan², Kaili Jiang², Qunqing Li², Shoushan Fan¹, Jiaping Wang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
² Department of Physics and Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.

PMID: 28547818
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201700966

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 H₂ SO₄ and H₂ O₂ ) 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.

Keywords: aerogels; carbon nanotubes; hierarchical structures; self-expansion; ultralight.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't