Effect of pyrolysis temperature on compression and thermal properties of melamine-derived carbon foam

The fabrication of the three-dimensional (3D) porous framework normally required the assistance of carbon foam. In this paper, the ultralight flexible melamine foam-derived carbon foam (MDCF) was obtained by the direct carbonization process. The influence of the pyrolysis temperature on the microstructure, compressive strength, and thermal conductivity properties of the as-prepared MDCF samples was studied systematically. The results showed that MDCF inherited the 3D open-hole architecture of the starting melamine foam despite the carbon skeleton. The MDCF obtained at 900 °C possessed the highest compressive stress of 19.0 kPa at 10% strain and the lowest effective thermal conductivity of 0.0262 W·m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at normal temperature. To further probe the internal connection, the relationships of the compressive stress and the porosity, as well as the thermal conductivity and the average pore size were investigated. It demonstrated that the pyrolysis temperature had evident effects on the final performances.