Nanoporous Carbon Monoliths with Tunable Thermal Insulation and Mechanical Properties

In this work, nanoscale porous carbon monoliths, with excellent compressive strength and thermal insulation, were obtained with a simple method of carbonizing cured phenol-formaldehyde resin/poly(methyl methacrylate) blends. Apparent density, pore size and morphology of the carbon monoliths were tailored by changing the composition, curing process and carbonization temperature. The continuous nanopores played a key role in enhancing mechanical and thermal performance of the carbon materials. When PMMA concentration was 25%, apparent density and thermal conductivity of the nanoporous carbonaceous monoliths were obtained as low as 1.07 g · cm⁻³ and 0.42 W/(m · K), decreasing by 29.4% and 35.4% than that of carbonaceous monoliths obtained from pure PF; while compressive strength of the nanoporous carbonaceous monoliths was as high as 34 MPa, which was improved over five times than that of pure PF carbon monoliths.