4. Fitting Carbon Gels and Composites for Environmental Processes

The air and water pollution is a main challenge in the preservation of our planet for the future generations. Pollution is a changing problem, in such a manner that the technology and materials used for decontamination processes should be continuously improved. The two main options to address this goal are based on the optimization of adsorption or catalytic processes. Both approaches are surface processes and thus materials with fitted physicochemical properties to be applied in these processes are needed.

The main advantage of the sol-gel synthesis is its flexibility and the multitude of possible combinations of the different synthesis conditions, thus allowing the preparation of materials with a wide range of different characteristics, which can be fitted at the nanometric scale. Carbon gels are nanomaterials prepared by specifically designed synthetic processes and obtained from pure reactants. Their properties can be fitted during or after the gelation/carbonization. In this chapter, the peculiarities of the carbon aerogels are presented together with the statement of the pollution problem. The analysis of the adsorbents and/or catalysts requirements for its use in environmental processes is described, as well as the possibilities to fit the synthesis processes to the needed physicochemical properties. Finally, the performance of carbon gels in both adsorption and catalytic processes is presented, taking into account both the water and air treatments. Carbon gels present excellent qualities and excellent performances in many different approaches used for decontamination. The use of alternative raw material and safe, fast, and conventional techniques of production of advanced carbon gels with fitted properties can favor definitively the industrial production and application of this kind of materials.