Methods of forming solid carbon products include disposing a plurality of nanotubes in a press, and applying heat to the plurality of carbon nanotubes to form the solid carbon product. Further processing may include sintering the solid carbon product to form a plurality of covalently bonded carbon nanotubes. The solid carbon product includes a plurality of voids between the carbon nanotubes having a median minimum dimension of less than about 100 nm. Some methods include compressing a material comprising carbon nanotubes, heating the compressed material in a non-reactive environment to form covalent bonds between adjacent carbon nanotubes to form a sintered solid carbon product, and cooling the sintered solid carbon product to a temperature at which carbon of the carbon nanotubes do not oxidize prior to removing the resulting solid carbon product for further processing, shipping, or use.

Silicon particles for active materials and electro-chemical cells are provided. The active materials comprising silicon particles described herein can be utilized as an electrode material for a battery. In certain embodiments, the composite material includes greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight silicon particles, the silicon particles having an average particle size between about 10 nm and about 40 μm, wherein the silicon particles have surface coatings comprising silicon carbide or a mixture of carbon and silicon carbide, and greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of one or more types of carbon phases, wherein at least one of the one or more types of carbon phases is a substantially continuous phase.

The present invention discloses novel porous polymeric compositions comprising random copolymers of amides, imides, ureas, and carbamic-anhydrides, useful for the synthesis of monolithic bimodal microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels. It also discloses methods for producing said microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels by the reaction of a polyisocyanate compound and a polycarboxylic acid compound, followed by pyrolytic carbonization, and by reactive etching with CO.sub.2 at elevated temperatures. Also disclosed are methods for using the microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels in the selective capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.

The present invention discloses novel porous polymeric compositions comprising random copolymers of amides, imides, ureas, and carbamic-anhydrides, useful for the synthesis of monolithic bimodal microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels. It also discloses methods for producing said microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels by the reaction of a polyisocyanate compound and a polycarboxylic acid compound, followed by pyrolytic carbonization, and by reactive etching with CO.sub.2 at elevated temperatures. Also disclosed are methods for using the microporous/macroporous carbon aerogels in the selective capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.

A method of producing a carbon material-containing material having a precisely controlled structure under a mild condition, a carbon material-containing material covalently bonded to an inorganic matter, and an intermediate material which is useful for, for example, industrially producing carbon-coated inorganic particles, hollow carbon fine particles, and can be industrially produced under a mild condition, are provided. The method of producing a carbon material-containing material includes heating a composition containing a compound (A), which causes a condensation reaction between the same and/or different molecules, and an inorganic matter. When the compound (A) has a condensation reaction temperature of T° C., a heating temperature is (T−150)° C. or more. The carbon material-containing material includes a carbon material and an inorganic matter. At least part of the carbon material and inorganic matter are covalently bonded. The organic-inorganic composite includes a carbon material and an inorganic matter. The carbon material is soluble in a solvent.

A fuel cell electrode catalyst includes: a noble-metal-supported catalyst including a carbon support and a noble metal supported on the carbon support; and a water-repellent material with which the noble-metal-supported catalyst is modified. The carbon support is mesoporous carbon in which a pore volume of pores having a pore size of 2 nm to 5 nm is 2.1 ml/g to 2.4 ml/g. An amount of the water-repellent material is 3% by weight to 7% by weight with respect to a total weight of the mesoporous carbon and the water-repellent material.

A fuel cell electrode catalyst includes: a noble-metal-supported catalyst including a carbon support and a noble metal supported on the carbon support; and a water-repellent material with which the noble-metal-supported catalyst is modified. The carbon support is mesoporous carbon in which a pore volume of pores having a pore size of 2 nm to 5 nm is 2.1 ml/g to 2.4 ml/g. An amount of the water-repellent material is 3% by weight to 7% by weight with respect to a total weight of the mesoporous carbon and the water-repellent material.

The present invention provides an anode material for a lithium-ion battery comprising a carbon particle having a particle size of 5 μm to 30 μm, and including defective portions on a surface of the carbon particle, the defective portions being holes or pores formed by anodic oxidation of the carbon particle.

A copolymer, a method for producing the copolymer, a porous structure formed by the copolymer, a method for producing the porous structure, and a porous carbon sphere formed by carbonizing the porous structure are shown. The copolymer has a chemical structure of formula (1) or (2):

##STR00001##

wherein the molecular weight of the copolymer structure is 120,000 or less g/mole, m and t are both greater than 0, 8%≦p≦80%, y≧0, z≧0, and X is selected from —Cl, —Br and —I.

Disclosed are methods for producing carbon foam in which using the vitrinite reflectance values of coals are used to form a blended coal precursor having a targeted vitrinite reflectance value. The targeted vitrinite reflectance value can be used to create similar carbon foam products from one production batch to the next.