Characteristics of a high compressive strength graphite foam prepared from pitches using a PVA–AAc solution

•PVA–AAc solution was used as a template to fabricate graphite foam with a high compressive-strength.•Various amounts of pitch were added into the polymer solution to control the pore size and apparent density.•Graphite foams had the range of apparent density from 0.12 to 0.61 g/cm3.•Graphite foam prepared by polymer solution was found to possess a high compressive strength of 7.90 ± 1.02 MPa with a thermal conductivity of 5.17 ± 0.02 W/m K.

A facile method applied for preparing high-compressive-strength graphite foams in which pitch was added to a PVA–AAc (polyvinyl alcohol–acrylic acid) solution. Various amounts of pitch were added to a polymer solution to control the pore sizes and apparent densities of resulting foams. The pore size of graphite foam was reduced by increasing the slurry concentration, and its apparent density ranged from 0.12 to 0.61 g/cm3. The graphite foam prepared using a hydrogel template had a high-compressive-strength of 7.90 ± 1.02 MPa and a thermal conductivity of 5.17 ± 0.02 W/m K. The proposed method was applied successfully for high-compressive-strength graphite foams.

Graphical abstractConvenient and economical method using hydrogel as a template was investigated for fabricating graphite foams with high compressive strength. Various amounts of pitch were added to a PVA–AAc (polyvinyl alcohol–acrylic acid) solution to investigate the pore sizes and apparent densities of the prepared graphite foams.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide