Carbon foam production by biomass pyrolysis

Carbon-based foams have attracted significant attention because of their unique physical properties, such as low density, fire resistance, and low thermal conductivity. Biomass is a qualified carbon raw material used for the preparation of valuable carbon materials because it is available in high quality and huge quantity and it is an environmentally friendly renewable resource. In this work, carbon foams were developed from a wood foam precursor, by pyrolysis. The characteristics of these foams were studied in order to verify their possible use in thermal insulation. Carbon foams were produced with different wood flour particle sizes and densities. The main results indicate that the wood foam density has significant effect on the carbon foam contraction after pyrolysis and all samples presented a structure predominantly composed of carbon with higher thermal stability than the levels presented by wood foams.