New Method of Manufacturing Carbon Foam

Carbon foam is a product that has some unique features. Carbon foam is a light weight material that has a high crush strength. It is electrically conductive, but because it is composed of air space between the tendrils, it is not a thermal conductor. Since it contains no volatile content, it is noncombustible. All these features allow carbon foam to have many modern applications. Currently, there are only three methods of producing carbon foam, and all three are not cost- efficient enough to meet the demand of potential new markets.In this thesis, a new procedure of producing carbon foam using a patented process, assigned to WVU, is investigated. The patented process produces carbon foam by using blends of a flux agent and a caking coal. The resulting product is a green coke foam. A detailed analysis of the addition of graphite into the production procedure of carbon foam to increase heat transfer within the microwave heating system is investigated. It was found that the process could be further improved by using graphite as an additive.Large 1 ft2 samples were manufactured using the newly modified process to be sent off for testing by third party companies, the possibility of using an alternative flux agent was explored, and the use of an inductive heater in place of a microwave was also investigated.