Carbon foam with channel like pores prepared from reactive blended allyl novolac with bismaleimide using different cross-linking initiators

•A novel approach to use shirt polyvinyl acetyl fibers as sacrificial template.•Pyrolysis at 1000°C to create channel like pores in resulting carbon foam.•Use of different cross-linking initiators to control excessive void formation.•Dicumyl peroxide proved to be superior in controlling pore-size distribution.