AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Ion Microscopy Focus Topic Thursday Sessions
       Session HI+MI+NS-ThA

Paper HI+MI+NS-ThA7
Helium Ion Microscopy Imaging of Carbon Nanofoams from Hydrothermal Carbonization of Sucrose

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 4:20 pm, Room 104A

Session: Ion Beam Based Imaging and Nanofabrication
Presenter: Natalie Frese, Bielefeld University, Germany
Authors: A. Beyer, Bielefeld University, Germany
N. Frese, Bielefeld University, Germany
S.T. Mitchell, University of Hawaii
A. Bowers, University of Hawaii
K. Sattler, University of Hawaii
A. Gölzhäuser, Bielefeld University, Germany
Correspondent: Click to Email
Carbon nanofoam is considered as potential hydrogen storage material as well as cathode material for metal-air batteries. It is known that carbon nanofoam contains both sp2- and sp3-bonded carbon atoms. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the atomic structure of this material. In this work, different types of carbon nanofoams were produced by low-temperature hydrothermal processing of carbon precursor materials. It was found that the produced foams have a low density and are uniform in their appearance. Helium-ion microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the foam samples. The results show good consistency between the micro- and nanostructure as well as the elemental composition. We conclude that hydrothermal processing of carbon precursor materials is an effective method to produce high-quality carbon nanofoams of graphitic nature.