Nanocarbon and Its Composites

Preparation, Properties and Applications

Anish Khan, Mohammad Jawaid, Abdullah M. Asiri, Inamuddin, Dr. Inamuddin, Abdullah M. Ahmed Asiri

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780081025093
• eBook ISBN: 9780081025109
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Nanocarbon and Its Composites: Preparation, Properties and Applications provides a detailed and comprehensive review of all major innovations in the field of nanocarbons and their composites, including preparation, properties and applications. Coverage is broad and quite extensive, encouraging future research in carbon-based materials, which are in high demand due to the need to develop more sustainable, recyclable and eco-friendly methods for materials. Chapters are written by eminent scholars and leading experts from around the globe who discuss the properties and applications of carbon-based materials, such as nanotubes (buckytubes), fullerenes, cones, horns, rods, foams, nanodiamonds and carbon black, and much more. Chapters provide cutting-edge, up-to-date research findings on the use of carbon-based materials in different application fields and illustrate how to achieve significant enhancements in physical, chemical, mechanical and thermal properties. - Demonstrates systematic approaches and investigations from design, synthesis, characterization and applications of nanocarbon based composites - Aims to compile information on the various aspects of synthesis, properties and applications of nano-carbon based materials - Presents a useful reference and technical guide for university academics and postgraduate students (Masters and Ph.D.)

1

Nanocarbon aerogel composites

Mohammad Omaish Ansari⁎; Rajeev Kumar^†; Shahid Pervez Ansari^‡; Mohamed Shaaban Abdel-wahab Hassan⁎; Ahmed Alshahrie⁎^,§; Mohamed Abou El-Fetough Barakat^{†,¶ ⁎} Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
^† Department of Environmental Sciences, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
^‡ Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
^§ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
^¶ Central Metallurgical R&D Institute, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Aerogels are a special kind of gel material in which the liquid part is replaced with gas without collapsing the overall structure. These materials are of special interest due to their low density, high porosity, and surface area. This chapter presents a brief historic overview of aerogels, then switches to the nanocarbon aerogels consisting of CNT, GN, nanodiamonds, etc. The various techniques for preparing nanocarbon aerogels and their composites have also been discussed. The characterizations of these fascinating materials have been briefly described to get an overview of the porous network and different fabrication possibilities. Finally, the applications of nanocarbon aerogel composites have been discussed in the field of environmental remediation such as gas sensing, adsorptive removal of pollutants, photocatalytic degradation, and the energy sector.

Keywords

Nanographene aerogels; Photocatalytic degradation; Energy storage; Gas sensing

Chapter Outline

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Different types of nanocarbon aerogels
  • 1.2.1 CNT aerogels
  • 1.2.2 Graphene aerogels
  • 1.2.3 CNT and graphene aerogels composite
  • 1.2.4 Nanodiamond based aerogels
• 1.3 Nanocarbon aerogels for energy storage applications
• 1.4 Nanocarbon aerogel adsorbents for wastewater remediation
• 1.5 Nanocarbon aerogel photocatalyst for wastewater remediation
• 1.6 Nanocarbon aerogels as sensors
• 1.7 Conclusion and future research
• References

1.1 Introduction

Aerogels are a special class of materials that has been used for space travel since the 1960s, but nowadays they are finding interesting applications in all industrial sectors [1]. Aerogels possess a specific geometrical structure and thus are not a specific mineral or material with a set chemical formula [2]. These are extremely branched materials and the structure is solid foam with high porosity and connectivity. Due to this high connectivity, it can take many different shapes and forms. Until now the majority of the works on aerogels have been done on silica-based materials, but other materials such as semiconducting metal oxides, polymers, noble metals, etc., have also been found to form aerogels [3–5]. Aerogels consist of very little solid material and internally the structure is nothing but air. This unique structural composition gives it a ghostly appearance, and hence it is also called frozen smoke [6].

Kistler first introduced the concept of aerogels by using supercritical drying conditions to remove the liquid by air in a wet gel; his work was published in the journal Nature in 1931 in just a half-page [7]. He showed that, at a certain critical point, the liquid phase can be completely removed without disturbing the structure and the formation of liquid-vapor interfaces. Also, the capillary forces that subsequently collapse the drying gel to xerogel can be avoided. Due to this supercritical drying condition, the aerogel retains high porosity, low density, and high surface area [8]. The Kistler method of preparing aerogels was cumbersome, and this field largely went uninvestigated until the 1960s when Teichner and Nicolaon prepared aerogels by what is now commonly known as the sol-gel process. The technique developed by Teichner and Nicolaon eliminated the time-consuming salt removal and solvent-exchange steps. They succeeded in producing silica aerogels by using silicon alkoxide and thus trigging the aerogel synthesis in hours rather than days [9].

This advancement in technique triggered research in the synthesis and design of a wide variety of simple and complex aerogel structures, including inorganic materials (SiO₂, TiO₂, ZnO, ZrO₂) [10], noble metals (Ag, Au) [11], organic materials (i.e., resorcinol-formaldehyde, polyimide, polystyrene, conducting polymers such as polyaniline or polypyrrole, etc.), [12] carbonaceous materials (i.e., charcoal, carbon black, carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene (GN)) [13,14], semiconductor chalcogenide (i.e., ZnS, PbS, CdS, CdSe, PbTe) [15], natural-based aerogels (i.e., cellulose and proteins) [16,17], and, more recently, SiC-based aerogels [18]. Besides the interesting properties of these single-component aerogels, their composite with a specific component has often conferred an additional functionality such as, for example, high mechanical strength, good hydrophobicity, and catalytic features in comparison to the pristine materials, which makes them applicable to high-performance applications in various sectors such as energy harvesting, environmental remediation, sensors, etc. [19–22].

Among a large number of aerogels, the carbon material-based aerogels are rather promising as they have the possibility of a large number of tunable diverse morphologies as well as hierarchical porosity, a large specific surface area, and the interconnected network that endows it with high electrical properties [23]. Carbon aerogels consisting of CNT, GN, etc., have been largely employed in various fields as they possess a high surface area to form the electric double layer and have good electrochemical oxidation/reduction stability [24]. The high porosity and possibilities of chemical functionalization make it a promising material for the adsorptive removal of pollutants and the sensing of volatile organic compounds [25,26]. In view of all these, the present chapter gives a brief overview of different types of nanocarbon aerogels and their composites, their structural morphology, and the synthesis and major developments in their applications in different fields. The compiled work does not cover all the developments in the above-mentioned fields, but it gives a basic understanding of the major developments and progress in this field. For the sake of convenience, the chapter is divided into different categories, depending on the field of application.

1.2 Different types of nanocarbon aerogels

Nanocarbon materials consist of CNT, GN, nanodiamond (ND), fullerenes, etc. There are different ways in which these nanocarbon materials and aerogels have come together. First, aerogels can be made using these carbonaceous materials or different types of aerogels can be reinforced with embedded nanocarbon materials. Nanocarbon aerogels have the advantage of having diverse macroscopic morphology, hierarchical porosity, and a large surface area. The interconnected framework of three-dimensional (3D) carbon gives them excellent electrical properties, which make them a promising material for a variety of applications [23].

1.2.1 CNT aerogels

Silica, polymers, carbonaceous materials, metal, and metal oxides have been used to fabricate aerogels [27–29], but fabrication of pure carbonaceous materials such as CNT aerogels has been a tedious job for scientists, who have achieved only modest success so far [30,31]. Ya-Li Li et al. [32] showed that the gaseous phase during CNT synthesis can be wound into continuous fibers of endless length. It was found that the continuous fibers formed an aerogel and gave an appearance of elastic smoke. The continuous spinning is possible in the case of a variety of carbon sources such as methanol, ethanol, ethers, acetones, etc. The structure of CNT aerogels is widely de...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• List of contributors
• Preface
• 1: Nanocarbon aerogel composites
• 2: Highly active and reusable nanocomposites for hydrogen generation
• 3: Carbon-based foams: Preparation and applications
• 4: Electrospun polymeric nanocarbon nanomats for tissue engineering
• 5: Graphene and polymer composites for supercapacitor applications
• 6: Graphene-based nano metal matrix composites: A review
• 7: Nanocarbons: Preparation, assessments, and applications in structural engineering, spintronics, gas sensing, EMI shielding, and cloaking in X-band
• 8: Prospects of nanocarbons in agriculture
• 9: Nanocarbon: Preparation, properties, and applications
• 10: Nanocarbons as electrode material for energy storage devices: Correlations between theory and experiment
• 11: Nanocarbon composites for poisonous gas degradation
• 12: Nanocarbon composites for detection of volatile organic compounds
• 13: Nanocarbon/epoxy composites: Preparation, properties, and applications
• 14: Multiscale hybrid composites with carbon-based nanofillers
• 15: Preparation and properties of fibrous nanocarbon
• 16: Preparation and properties of manipulated carbon nanotube composites and applications
• 17: Recent advances of nanocarbon-inorganic hybrids in photocatalysis
• 18: Synthesis of nanocarbon–polyaniline composite and investigation of its optical and electrical properties
• 19: Monodisperse PVP-stabilized nanoclusters as highly efficient and reusable catalysts for the dehydrogenation of dimethly ammonia-borane (DMAB)
• 20: Nanocarbon-supported catalysts for the efficient dehydrogenation of dimethylamine borane
• 21: Nanographene composite ion exchanger properties and applications
• 22: Carbon dots: preparation, properties, and application
• 23: Phthalocyanine-nanocarbon materials and their composites: Preparation, properties, and applications
• 24: Nanocarbon and its composites for water purification
• 25: Ultrasonic treatment in the production of classical composites and carbon nanocomposites
• 26: Nanocarbon material-filled cementitious composites for construction applications
• 27: Synthesis, properties, and characterization of carbon nanotube-reinforced metal matrix composites
• Index