Freestanding monolithic Ni aerogel with large surface areas from cellulose aerogel templates

A new approach was demonstrated to prepare free-standing monolithic nickel aerogel disk with a large surface area by using cellulose aerogel as the template. An electroless plating process was employed to insert Ni into nanochannels of cellulose aerogel. After template removal, the nanoporous Ni powders were mechanically compacted into the Ni aerogel disk. The obtained nanoporous Ni aerogel disk was highly crystallized and had special nanoporous structure. The Ni aerogel disk exhibited the high surface area of 72.5 m2/g, electrical conductivity of 714 S/m and magnetism, which is favorable in electric, magnetic and catalytic applications.