Investigating the Effects of Pyrolysis Temperature and Cobalt-doped Methods in Organic Aerogel on the Physical and Chemical Properties of Carbon Aerogel

In the present study, for the first time, the effect of pyrolysis temperature on the structure of carbon aerogel synthesized at ambient conditions as a support and methods of cobalt-doped carbon aerogel on its physicochemical properties have been investigated. Carbon aerogel was synthesized by resorcinol and formaldehyde precursors at pyrolysis temperatures of 550 °C, 700 °C and 900 °C and cobalt-doped carbon aerogel was prepared by the following three different methods (i) cobalt impregnation on the carbon aerogel, (ii) cobalt impregnation on the organic resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogel, and (iii) addition of cobalt precursor to the initial resorcinol-formaldehyde mixture before carbon aerogel polymerization process. The results indicated that pyrolysis at 700 °C led to mesoporous carbon aerogel with a specific surface area of 483.8 m2/g. High cobalt dispersion and particle size controllability have been seen in the impregnation method, while in the third method, the cobalt precursor catalyzes the polymerization process and leads to the formation of microparticles.