Self-Expansion Construction of Ultralight Carbon Nanotube Aerogels with a 3D and Hierarchical Cellular Structure

A novel and simple strategy is developed to construct ultralight and 3D pure carbon nanotube (CNT) aerogels by the spontaneous expansion of superaligned CNT films soaked in a piranha (mixed H2SO4 and H2O2) solution, followed by cryodesiccation. The macroscopic CNT aerogels have an extremely low apparent density (0.12 mg cm−3), ultrahigh porosity (99.95%), high specific surface area (298 m2 g−1), and a hierarchical cellular structure with giant and ultrathin CNT sheets as cell walls. The pure CNT aerogels show high adsorption abilities for various kinds of solvents, and have great potential in widespread applications such as energy storage, catalysis, and bioengineering.