Carbon Aerogels and Monoliths: Control of Porosity and Nanoarchitecture via Sol-Gel routes

The synthesis of carbon aerogels by sol gel like processes, i.e., hard templating, phase demixing, hydrothermal carbonization techniques, as well as by ionothermal syntheses are reviewed. In all these techniques, we start with a liquid reaction solution, where controlled by experimental parameters and structure-directing additives a porous carbon material with high conductivity, high pore volume, and high specific surface area is obtained. Many of these synthesis approaches give the resulting material in simple, rather sustainable processes, and the structures can be employed directly after isolation without further activation processes. The article will discuss also some applications, such as battery and electrode materials as well as catalyst supports.