Synthesis of Dendritic Porous Graphite

Example 4

A piece of dendritic nano structures from Examples 1, 2 and 3 were loaded into a stable heating zone of a quartz tube furnace at 700° C. in the flow of H₂ (20 SCCM) for 40 min to clean the surface. Then C₂H₄ (10 SCCM) was introduced into the reaction zone to grow graphite on the Ni catalysts for 2.5-15 hour. Next, the sample was slowly cooled to the ambient temperature and then immersed into the mixed solution of 1 M iron chloride (FeCl₃) and 2 M hydrochloride (HCl) at room temperature for overnight etching. After rinsing the sample with deionized water several times and drying at 60° C. for 4 hours, a freestanding flexible dendritically porous graphite (GF) thin film (or 3-D foam) was obtained.