The role of ferrocene on the enhancement of the mechanical and electrochemical properties of coal tar pitch-based carbon foams

In the present study, the role of ferrocene on mechanical and electrochemical properties of coal tar pitch (CTP)-based carbon foam (CFoam) was investigated. The different weight fractions of ferrocene were mixed with CTP and foam was developed from the mixture of CTP and ferrocene by sacrificial template technique. Before the characterisation of foams, it was heat treated at 1000 and 2500 °C in inert atmosphere. It was observed that the bulk density of CFoam increased with the increase in ferrocene content and as a consequence of an improvement of structural properties of the CFoam. The compressive strength increased by 60 and 62 % of 1000 and 2500 °C heat-treated CFoam with 5 wt% of ferrocene content. However, higher content of ferrocene had negative effect on the compressive strength. The electrical and thermal conductivity increased with the increasing ferrocene content and as a result of catalytic graphitization of ligaments in CFoam. The current density increased with the increasing electrical conductivity of CFoam, and it was 102 mA/cm² at 10 wt% ferrocene. The specific capacitance was 865 μF/cm² at scan rate 10 mV/s, which was due to the higher conductivity and surface area of CFoam. This demonstrated that ferrocene could be useful for improving the properties of CFoam.