Porous three-dimensional networks of polyimide and porous three-dimensional networks of carbon and methods of their manufacture are described. For example, polyimide aerogels are prepared by mixing a dianhydride and a diisocyanate in a solvent comprising a pyrrolidone and acetonitrile at room temperature to form a sol-gel material and supercritically drying the sol-gel material to form the polyimide aerogel. Porous three-dimensional polyimide networks, such as polyimide aerogels, may also exhibit a fibrous morphology. Having a porous three-dimensional polyimide network undergo an additional step of pyrolysis may result in the three dimensional network being converted to a purely carbon skeleton, yielding a porous three-dimensional carbon network. The carbon network, having been derived from a fibrous polyimide network, may also exhibit a fibrous morphology.

There is described a mesoporous composite material comprising carbon nanoparticles dispersed in a mesoporous carbonaceous material.

A method of preparing a porous carbon material is provided. The method comprises a) freezing a liquid mixture comprising a polymer suspended or dissolved in a solvent to form a frozen mixture; b) removing the solvent from the frozen mixture to form a porous frozen mixture; and c) pyrolyzing the porous frozen mixture to obtain the porous carbon material. A porous carbon material prepared using the method, and uses of the porous carbon material are also provided.

A mineral filler in a flame-retardant organic polymer composition comprising a calcium compound for a fire-resistant effect characterized in that said calcium compound comprises at least calcium hydroxide, use of same and the combustion residue obtained therefrom, and polymer sheaths for electrical cables containing the mineral filler in the flame-retardant polymer composition.

The present invention relates to graphene-based foam, the graphene-based foam having a structure defined by a three-dimensional network of interconnected and ordered open cells, the open cells being defined by cell walls, the cell walls (i) being formed of graphene sheets, partially reduced graphene oxide sheets, reduced graphene oxide sheets, or a combination thereof, and (ii) having a thickness defined by the thickness of a plurality of graphene sheets, partially reduced graphene oxide sheets, reduced graphene oxide sheets, or a combination thereof.

Disclosed is a method of preparing a carbide-derived carbon having high ion mobility for use in a lithium battery anode material, a lithium air battery electrode, a supercapacitor electrode, and a flow capacitor electrode, including thermally treating a carbide compound in a vacuum, thus obtaining a vacuum-treated carbide compound; and thermochemically reacting the vacuum-treated carbide compound with a halogen element-containing gas, thus extracting the element other than carbon from the vacuum-treated carbide compound, wherein annealing can be further performed after thermochemical reaction. This carbide-derived carbon has a small pore distribution, dense graphite fringe, and a large lattice spacing and thus high ion mobility, compared to conventional carbide-derived carbon obtained only by thermochemical reaction with a halogen element-containing gas.

Novel nanoparticle-coated multilayer shell microstructures are disclosed herein. Some variations of the invention provide a material comprising a plurality of hollow microstructures characterized by an average shortest diameter from about 5 microns to about 1 millimeter, wherein each of the microstructures comprises multiple shells, including at least an inner shell and an outmost shell, with a combined thickness that is less than one-tenth of the average shortest diameter. The inner shell and the outmost shell have different composition. The outmost shell comprises nanoparticles sized between about 10 nanometers to about 500 nanometers, and the nanoparticles each contain an oxide and/or are surrounded by an oxide layer having a layer thickness of at least 1 nanometer. Several microstructure configurations are illustrated in the drawings.

The invention relates to carbon aerogels with particle sizes less than 1 μm. The carbon aerogels are prepared by (A)reacting a mono- and/or polyhydroxybenzene, an aldehyde and a catalyst in a reactor at a reaction temperature T in the range from 75-200° C. at a pressure of 80-2400 kPa, (B) then spraying the reaction mixture from process step (A) into an acid, (C) drying the resulting product from process step (B) and (D) carbonizing it. The carbon aerogels according to the invention can be used as filler, reinforcing filler, UV stabilizer, electrode material, sound absorbents, thermal insulating material, catalyst, catalyst support, conductivity additive, absorbent for gas and/or liquid preparation or pigment.

An object of the present invention is to provide a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery which has a large charge/discharge capacity, has a small irreversible capacity, and is capable of effectively using an active material.

This object can be achieved by a material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery anode; a specific surface area determined by a BET method being not greater than 30 m.sup.2/g; an atomic ratio (H/C) of hydrogen atoms to carbon atoms determined by elemental analysis being not greater than 0.1; an average particle size being not greater than 50 μm; and a diffraction intensity ratio (R-value) determined by Equation (1) being not greater than 1.25: (wherein I.sub.max is a maximum value of a 002 diffraction intensity of carbon measured at an angle of diffraction (2θ) within a range of from 20 to 25° as determined by powder X-ray diffraction measured using CuKα rays; I.sub.min is a minimum value of a diffraction intensity measured at an angle of diffraction (2θ) within a range of from 15 to 20° as determined by powder X-ray diffraction; and 135 is a diffraction intensity at an angle of diffraction (2θ) of 35° as determined by powder X-ray diffraction).

The disclosure relates to a method for preparing a silica embedded carbon black composite aggregate and the silica embedded carbon black composite aggregate prepared thereby. The disclosure further relates to the use of the silica embedded carbon black composite aggregates in compositions such as rubber compositions.