Macrocellular vitreous carbon with the improved mechanical strength

Vitreous carbons with regular macrocellular structure, open interconnected porosity, high specific strength and hydraulic permeability were synthesized by infiltration of the epoxy resin into the sacrificial template made from the carbamide granules. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution in ethanol was used as the template binder. When the resin setting and the template extraction had been performed, the resultant porous material was pyrolysed in the nitrogen flow. Depending on PVP concentration in the template binder, final vitreous carbons had the following properties: bulk density at 0.17-0.22 g/cm 3 ; porosity at 85.7%-89.0%; window size at 447-735 µm; Darcian permeability coefficient at (0.64-9.5)×10 -9 m 2 ; non-Darcian permeability coefficient at (0.53-3.36)×10 -4 m. High specific strength of above 8×10 3 Pa/(kg·m -3 ) was attained.