Simple production of high-quality graphene foams by pyrolysis of sodium ethoxide

Three-dimensional graphene structures have attracted a great interest these last years. The combination of well-known graphene properties and a large specific surface area developed by their intrinsic porosity is especially interesting for challenging applications such as energy storage and conversi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials chemistry and physics 2018-11, Vol.219, p.57-66
Main Authors: Speyer, Lucie, Fontana, Sébastien, Cahen, Sébastien, Hérold, Claire
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorption
Catalysis
Chemical Sciences
Chemical synthesis
Decomposition
Energy storage
Foams
Graphene
Heat treatment
Inorganic chemistry
Material chemistry
Porosity
Pyrolysis
Raman spectroscopy
Sodium
Sodium ethoxide
Specific surface
Spectrum analysis
Surface area
TEM
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Summary:Three-dimensional graphene structures have attracted a great interest these last years. The combination of well-known graphene properties and a large specific surface area developed by their intrinsic porosity is especially interesting for challenging applications such as energy storage and conversion or catalysis. This work is focused on the elaboration of graphene foams by pyrolysis of sodium ethoxide. Whereas the literature mentions the possible elaboration of graphene foams by combustion of sodium ethoxide synthesized by a quite heavy solvothermal-based process, we propose here a thermal treatment consisting in a pyrolysis under a nitrogen flow. Using commercial sodium ethoxide, we show that this treatment leads to the preparation of graphene foams with great structural quality and high specific surface area. This original result is supported by a compared characterization of solvothermal and commercial sodium ethoxide and the proposition of a formation mechanism of the three-dimensional graphene network during the pyrolysis is proposed. This new graphene foam elaboration route is extremely interesting in order to consider a large-scale fabrication of such materials. [Display omitted] •Pyrolysis of commercial sodium ethoxide is sufficient to obtain graphene foams.•The solvothermal sodium ethoxide entraps excess ethanol and water.•The mechanism of formation is based on the interactions between carbon and the sodium-based compounds.
ISSN:0254-0584
1879-3312
DOI:10.1016/j.matchemphys.2018.08.020