A carbon nanotube/carbonaceous foam composite: simple preparation and potential application

The combination of carbonaceous foams (CFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is considered a viable strategy to take advantage of the merits of these two materials. Most of the reported CF–CNT composite embedded the CNTs in the framework of CFs, which may conceal some unique properties of the CNTs. In the present work, CNTs were successfully deposited on the ultra-thin cell walls of a starch-derived CF via a simple flame strategy. Two key factors (the concentration of Ni catalyst and the time of flame treatment) affecting the preparation of the CF–CNT composite were investigated. The CF–CNT composite prepared under optimized conditions has a much larger specific surface area (128.7 m² g⁻¹) than the CF substrate (1.3 m² g⁻¹). We demonstrated the potential of the CF–CNT composite for strain sensing. The sensors assembled using the CF–CNT composite as key material were sensitive to compression, bending and stretching.