Carbon foam – Its preparation, characterisation and application
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014 - 11:00 – 12:00
Seminar Room, via Sommarive 9, I-38123 Trento
- Prasanta Jana
Abstract
Carbon foams find applications such as porous electrodes, high temperature insulation, filters, demisters, storage batteries, scaffolds and in thermal management etc. to name a few. Carbon foams can be graphitic or non-graphitic, depending on the way they have been prepared: precursor and thermal treatment. The precursors of non-graphitic foams are mainly phenol or resorcinol crosslinked with formaldehyde, polyurethane, furfural resin, polyvinylidene chloride, etc. In contrast, graphitic foams can be prepared from coal, pitch and similar graphitizable materials. Carbon foams were first developed by researchers in the late 1960s as reticulated vitreous (glassy) carbon. During the decades, many researchers explored a variety of applications. In fact, reticulated glasslike carbon foams (RVC) have been used as template for the preparation of many of the metallic and ceramic foams. Successful operations of 137Cs traps using RVC as trapping material were demonstrated.
This presentation will describes the synthesis of carbon foam from sucrose (bio-sourced precursor) and the experiments carried out towards development of radionuclide trap (137Cs) for sodium cooled fast reactor (FBTR, India). On this context, preparation and characterisation of alumina foam, carbon coated alumina foam and carbon coated nickel foam etc. will be outlined.
Short CV
Prasanta Jana obtained his Master of Science (M. Sc) degree from Bengal Engineering and
Science University, India. He was also awarded doctorate degree (Ph. D) from University of Madras (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, India), where he was working on the development of materials for radionuclide trap for fast reactor. He worked as a researcher in Institute Jean Lamour (IJL-CNRS, France) on the topic of ‘Improvement of thermal conductivity of carbon foam (FP7 Cooperation Work Programme: Sugar Alcohol based Materials for Seasonal Storage Applications).’ He has experiences with synthetic techniques and applications of various porous materials (Carbon foam, nickel dispersed carbon foam, alumina foam, carbon coated alumina foam, nickel dispersed carbon coated alumina foam, nickel aluminate alumina foam, nickel foam, carbon coated nickel foam etc.).
The poster is on the download box.