Preparation of a carbon fibre-reinforced carbon aerogel and its application as a high-temperature thermal insulator

A carbon fiber reinforced carbon aerogel (CF/CA) was prepared by impregnating polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibre felts with a resorcinol (R)–furfural (F) sol containing a salt (ZnCl 2 ), followed by ageing and pyrolysis. The RF sol containing the salt was synthesized by direct polymerisation of R and F in methanol (MeOH) using ZnCl 2 as a salt template. Compared with the traditional sol–gel method for preparing CF/CAs, this procedure eliminates the need for solvent-exchange and supercritical-fluid drying processes. This novel strategy may lead to lower-cost and large scale industrial processes of CF/CAs.