'Laser chemistry' synthesis, physicochemical properties, and chemical processing of nanostructured carbon foams

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. ; Laser ablation of selected coordination complexes can lead to the production of metal-carbon hybrid materials, whose composition and structure can be tailored by suitably choosing the chemical composition of the irradiated targets. This 'laser chemistry' approach, initially applied by our group to the synthesis of P-containing nanostructured carbon foams (NCFs) from triphenylphosphine-based Au and Cu compounds, is broadened in this study to the production of other metal-NCFs and P-free NCFs. Thus, our results show that P-free coordination compounds and commercial organic precursors can act as efficient carbon source for the growth of NCFs. Physicochemical characterization reveals that NCFs are low-density mesoporous materials with relatively low specific surface areas and thermally stable in air up to around 600°C. Moreover, NCFs disperse well in a variety of solvents and can be successfully chemically processed to enable their handling and provide NCF-containing biocomposite fibers by a wet-chemical spinning process. These promising results may open new and interesting avenues toward the use of NCFs for technological applications. ; This work has been supported by the regional Government of Aragón (Spain, Project PI119/09, and E101 and T87 Research Groups funding) and the Spanish Government and Feder funds through grant MAT2010-19837-C06-06. This work has been funded in part by the European Commission through projects LIFE11/ENV/ES 560 and grant agreement no. 280658. ; Peer Reviewed