Electrically conductive gamma-alumina/amorphous carbon nano-composite foams

The templating method has always been considered an efficient method to design new morphologies for old materials.We have already demonstrated that it is possible to generate by templating method, a new class of alumina meso-foams showing peculiar conductive properties that strictly depend on the size of the bubbles generated by polymeric templating beads. In this work we definitively demonstrate by the "high resolution transmission electron microscopy" and by the "Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS)" that the alumina meso-foams are actually composites of conductive amorphous carbon and g-alumina nanoparticles. This evidence supports the hypothesis that the conductive properties of the meso-foams are mainly due to the un-combusted amorphous carbon imbedded in the alumina frame. We believe that our innovative approach based on in-situ carbon-composite formation, could be potentially extended to several other non-conductive oxides shaped through the old templating method.