Development of Low Cost, Environmentally Friendly and High Strength Carbon

Foams from Bread and Cake

A Senior Project
Presented to
The Faculty of the Materials Engineering Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science

By
Laura Mountain-Tuller
June, 2018
 Approval Page

Project Title: Development of Low Cost, Environmentally Friendly and High

Strength Carbon Foams from Bread and Cake

Author: Laura Mountain-Tuller

Date Submitted: June 10, 2018

CAL POLY STATE UNIVERSITY

Materials Engineering Department

Since this project is a result of a class assignment, it has been graded and accepted as
fulfillment of the course requirements. Acceptance does not imply technical accuracy or
reliability. Any use of information in this report is done at the risk of the user. These risks
may include catastrophic failure of the device or infringement of patent or copyright laws.
The students and staff of Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo cannot be held liable for
any misuse of the project.

Linda Vanasupa ______________________________

Project Advisor Signature

Abstract
Carbon foam is a high niche material that consists of a highly porous, three-dimensional cellular
network that is characterized by extremely high strength-to-weight ratios and low thermal
conductivity. Due to these properties, carbon foams excel in structural and thermal applications,
especially in the aerospace industry. Typically, carbon foams are formed through a heating
process called pyrolysis of polymer precursors with high carbon content. This process is done at
high temperatures in an oxygen free environment. These precursors are expensive to make and
use toxic chemicals to produce, therefore, there is a push to find an environmentally friendly and
cost-effective method to produce carbon foams. This research has looked into the development
of a method for making carbon foams out of bread and cake precursors. This material costs about
one dollar a batch to produce and can be made with common, non-toxic ingredients. Cakes
already have a foam like structure and pyrolizing these cakes produces a near pure carbon
structure. By varying the cake recipe used for the precursor, the structural and thermal properties
of the material can be tuned to match the design criteria. The commercial foam minimum is
2.0MPa. The bread carbon foam reached a compressive strength of 1.9MPa while the cake
carbon foam reached a compressive strength of 3.0 MPa. On average, the carbon foams typically
lose 75.3% of their volume, 82.2% of their mass and 36.8% of their density during the pyrolysis
process. These carbon foams from bread and cake are hydrophobic, but lipophilic and have the
ability to absorb 90% of their volume in oil making them a potential solution to oil spills and oil
clean up.

Key words: materials engineering, aerospace, pyrolysis, carbonization, carbon, foam,

insulator, pores, open-cell foam, closed-cell foam, compression test, scanning electron
microscopy, hydrophobic, lipophilic, lightweight
Acknowledgments
Thank to Bill and Linda Frost who supported this project through funding for summer research.
Thank you to Dr. Nikolous Glazar for the constant encouragement and support to not only get
this project off the ground, but to reach the highest potential. Also thank you to Dr. Linda
Vanasupa for the support and guidance to complete an engineering project to higher standards
than I expected of myself. Special thanks to the Cal Poly Physics Department for the
collaboration and support through lab space and supplies. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr.
Nathan Heston and Dr. Pete Schwartz from the Cal Poly Physics Department for their knowledge
and guidance for this project as well as research space. Thanks to Dr. Kaveh Kabir and ASDM
team from the Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering Department for their expertise of foams as well
as guidance in compression testing. In addition, thanks to Molly Lear, Dr. John B Ubbink, and
Dr. Robert Kravets from the Cal Poly Food Science and Nutrition Department for the use of their
freeze dryer as well as the guidance of bread and cake structure.
Table of Contents
1. Background ............................................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Foams .................................................................................................................................... 2
1.2 Current Manufacturing of Carbon Foams ............................................................................. 2
1.3 Carbon Foam Mechanical and Thermal Properties .............................................................. 3
1.4 Alternative Precursors to Carbon Foams .............................................................................. 5
2. Methods & Materials ................................................................................................................ 6
2.2 Compression Testing ............................................................................................................ 8
2.3 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) ................................................................................. 9
3. Results ........................................................................................................................................ 9
3.1 Samples ................................................................................................................................. 9
3.2 Compression Testing .......................................................................................................... 10
3.3 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) ............................................................................... 12
4. Discussion................................................................................................................................. 13
6. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 15
7. References ................................................................................................................................ 16
 List of Figures
Figure 1. Open (left) and closed (right) cell foam structures. ......................................................... 2
Figure 2. Typical stress strain curve of a foam14. ........................................................................... 3
Figure 3. The initial plastic region with the buckling of cell edges (left) leads to the eventual
fracture of a cell during compression testing (right)14. ................................................................... 4
Figure 4. Thermal qualities of a foam structure15. .......................................................................... 5
Figure 5. Stainless steel chamber used to house the samples during the pyrolysis process. .......... 6
Figure 6. The schematic of the set up used for the pyrolysis processes. The chamber was within
the kiln and the piping was attached directly to the chamber to allow for a good vacuum and seal.
......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 7. The particle collector used to release exhaust gas, trap as many particles as possible,
and restrict the flow of water into the piping during the cooling process....................................... 8
Figure 8. a)Wonderbread, control b)cake, and c)bread samples before and after the pyrolysis
processes. ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Figure 9. The sample when a)initially placed in the water and b)one minute and 40 seconds after.
....................................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 10. Additives to the bread lowered the max compressive strength considerably. ............. 11
Figure 11. Bread did not successfully reach the commercial foam minimum of 2.0MPa while the
cake exceeded by about 1.0 MPa. ................................................................................................. 11
Figure 12. Comparison of a)cake and b)bread samples. ............................................................... 12
Figure 13. Cracking within samples most likely due to thermal cracking. ................................... 13

1
1. Background
1.1 Foams

Carbon foam is a high niche material that contains a highly porous structure that provides a 3D
cellular network that is successful in structural applications as well as thermal applications.
There are two types of cellular networks that foams can have: open and closed cell. Open cell
foams have a more hair-like structure with only cell edges rather than faces forming these foams.
This material has the ability to allow fluids to flow freely throughout the structure. Closed cell
foams are much stronger materials, in general, but are heavily dependent on the cell size and cell
wall thickness1. Foams with a closed cell structure have cell walls that isolate pockets of gas or
air (Fig. 1). Foams can also be categorized as a mix of open and closed cell foams and are called
sponges.

Figure 1. Open (left) and closed (right) cell foam structures.

1.2 Current Manufacturing of Carbon Foams

Typically, carbon foams are formed through a heating process called pyrolysis of polymer
precursors with high carbon content3. Pyrolysis is a process of a thermochemical decomposition
of an organic material and the particular type of pyrolysis that is necessary to produce carbon
foams is carbonization. This specific process produces a high purity carbon backbone through
the decomposition of other elements in the chain. Carbonization is done at high temperatures and
must be done in an oxygen free environment to prevent combustion of the material. Carbon
foams are also prepared through the assembly of graphene nanosheets into three dimensional

2
porous networks4. Additional precursors include coal, pitch, phenolic resin, and foam templates
through different methods such as blowing or chemical linkages5,6,7,8. Each precursor allows for a
different set of mechanical and thermal properties which can be used to engineer the material for
various applications.

1.3 Carbon Foam Mechanical and Thermal Properties

Carbon foams are typically used for thermal and electrical applications where structure may be
involved9,10,11,12. Carbon foams are highly insulating and have a high strength to weight ratio.
This makes it commonly used in the aerospace industry for rocket nozzles. Lower end carbon
foams currently used on the market have compressive strengths of 2.07MPa13. A typical stress
strain curve for foams is shown in Figure 2. The initial plastic region is the onset of buckling
within the cell structure (Fig. 3). The plateau region is the elastic portion of the curve which is
the result of cells continuously buckling and fracturing. When the curve reaches the densification
region, there is no longer any structure left of the cells and the test is just crushing the resulting
powder of the destroyed sample.

Figure 2. Typical stress strain curve of a foam14.

3
Figure 3. The initial plastic region with the buckling of cell edges (left) leads to the eventual fracture of a cell during
compression testing (right)14.

Carbon foams are capable of being great insulators due to their ability to limit the amount of heat
transfer during conduction, convection and radiation. The cell walls are black and opaque which
limits the heat from traveling through. Foam materials with more abundant and thicker cell walls
allow for conduction to be a very prevalent mode of heat transfer. Typically insulating foams
such as carbon foams do not have very thick cell walls; however, which limits the amount of heat
that can travel through conduction. This heat also does not have a straight path due to the
multitude of pores throughout the structure. The pores in the structure are the most essential part
of limiting the heat transfer through the material. Within these pores is trapped air which stops
the conduction through the material. Convection and radiation is present in these air bubbles.
This heat can only travel through air so it remains trapped in these bubbles and is unable to move
freely throughout the structure (Fig.4).

4
 Figure 4. Thermal qualities of a foam structure15.

1.4 Alternative Precursors to Carbon Foams

Carbon is a material that is abundant in nature, which therefore means that there are many
different organic materials that we can look to for an alternative solution. Organic materials such
as banana peels, watermelon, pomelo peel and lignin16,17,18,19,20. An additional material that has
come to the forefront of these organic materials is bread. This material already has a foam like
structure, specifically a sponge structure, from the yeast and it has a high carbon consistency
with the starch molecules15. Pyrolysis of a strictly flour, water, and yeast bread has produced
thermal conductivities of 0.06- 0.27 W/mK which proves to be a great thermal insulator. This
material costs only about one dollar a loaf to produce and can be made with common household
ingredients. Although this material has proven to be cheaper to produce and less time consuming
to produce, another material emerged from this area of research: cake. Cake has similar sponge
structure to bread, but is much denser. The goal of this research is to produce a mechanically
similar carbon foam from cake and bread precursors to what is currently on the market.

5
2. Methods & Materials

2.1 Sample Preparation

Varying samples of bread and cake were produced using common household baking ingredients
including a leavening agent (yeast or baking soda depending on which material was desired),
flour, sugar, oil, water and eggs. The base recipe for the cake consisted of 398 grams(g)
granulated sugar, 390 g all-purpose flour, 25 g baking soda, 345 g canola oil, 700 g
deionized(DI) water and 4 eggs. This created a dense, oily structure. The bread recipe began with
a starter which was made from 114 g water, 142 g of bread flour, and ½ tsp of instant rapid rise
yeast. 187 g of starter was mixed with 405 g DI water, 31 g sugar, 7 g yeast, and 595 g bread
flour.

Once the batter or dough was mixed using a Kitchen Aid Mixer, the batter or dough was placed
into a glass pan in order to bake at 178°C for a 1.5 hours. The oven was then turned off and
allowed to slowly oven cool until it reached room temperature.

Once a bread or cake was baked, it was cut down into multiple samples to be pyrolyized. They
were cut to 5.6 cm by 5.1 cm by 3.3 cm rectangular bricks and placed in the stainless steel
chamber (Fig. 5) with steel spacers placed between each sample.

Figure 5. Stainless steel chamber used to house the samples during the pyrolysis process.

6
Once samples were placed within the chamber, the chamber was placed within a kiln and the
piping was hooked up in order to connect the particle collector, argon tank and vacuum pump to
the chamber (Fig. 6) The temperature controller started the heating process. It was programmed
to heat to 500°C in 2 hours, soak at that temperature for 2 hours and then turn off. Samples then
oven cooled for 10 hours before the lid of the kiln was taken off to cool for another hour before
removing the samples from the chamber.

Figure 6. The schematic of the set up used for the pyrolysis processes. The chamber was within the kiln and the
piping was attached directly to the chamber to allow for a good vacuum and seal.

The particle collection was constructed from an inner chamber submerged approximately one
centimeter into water that was held in the outer chamber (Fig.7). The bottom of the inner
chamber had small holes that filled the entire bottom. These small holes constricted the flow of
water within the inner chamber. During the heating process, exhaust gas from the samples could
escape through the holes at the bottom and any particles or solids would be captured by the
water. When the chamber began to cool down, the samples and gas inside contracted, pulling
water into the inner chamber. Since the inner chamber only sat in the water 1 cm, the water did
not fill the inner chamber enough to be sucked up into the piping.

7
 Figure 7. The particle collector used to release exhaust gas, trap as many particles as possible, and restrict the flow
of water into the piping during the cooling process.

2.2 Compression Testing

Samples were sanded down to size for compression testing. In order to assure similar sizing and
parallel sides, a fixture was made to place the sample in during the sanding process. This fixture
had a 4.5cm by 4.5cm by 1.5cm slot for the sample to fit in. The sides were sanded down until it
could be placed in the fixture and then each large face was sanded down to be parallel. 1200 grit
sandpaper was used in order to avoid the cracking or damage to the foam structure.
Once samples were shaped, they were placed within a Shimadzu tensile tester, fit for
compression. The speed was set to 1.0mm/min. Samples were tested until they reached the
densification region of the stress strain curve. Five bread and five cake samples were tested.
There are also singular samples tested with variances to the original recipe such as adding rice
hulls.

8
2.3 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

In order to image samples, samples were cut down to approximately 1cm by 1cm by 1cm in
order to prevent the vacuum process from taking too long. These samples were sanded down to
shape. They were examined in high vacuum mode, 20.0kV with a spot size of 4.

3. Results

3.1 Samples

During the pyrolysis process, samples lost a large percent of their mass and volume (Fig. 8). On
average, samples lost 75.3% of their volume, 82.2% of their mass and 36.8% of their density.

Figure 8. a)Wonderbread, control b)cake, and c)bread samples before and after the pyrolysis processes.

Once the cake and bread was pyrolyized, it was found that the material had hydrophobic, but
lipophilic properties. When a sample was placed in a container with water and oil, the carbon
foam sample was able to soak up 91% of its volume in oil (Fig. 9).

9
 a) b)

Figure 9. The sample when a)initially placed in the water and b)one minute and 40 seconds after.

3.2 Compression Testing

Compression tests were done on the regular bread recipe described earlier as well as regular
bread samples that were freeze dried after baking but before pyrolysis, had rice hulls in them and
were made in the standard rectangular tray and had rice hulls but were made in circular glass
trays. The data for this is shown in Figure 10. The original recipe bread samples had a
considerably higher max compressive strength of about 1.95 MPa. All the other modified recipes
did not have a max compressive strength that reached past 0.5 MPa.

10
 Figure 10. Additives to the bread lowered the max compressive strength considerably.

Bread and cake carbon foam samples were then compared (Fig. 11). The average max strength of
bread carbon foam was just under the 2.0 MPa commercial foam minimum. The cake carbon
foam had a compressive strength of 3.0 MPa, surpassing the commercial carbon foam minimum.

Figure 11. Bread did not successfully reach the commercial foam minimum of 2.0MPa while the cake exceeded by
about 1.0 MPa.

11
3.3 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

The root of the properties of these carbon foams stems from the structure of each precursor used.
Cake has a much more uniform pore structure with thicker cell walls (Fig. 12). There are also
many more closed cell structures within this structure. Bread has many more hair-like cell edges
and has minimal cell walls. This also results in many more open cells than closed cells.

Figure 12. Comparison of a)cake and b)bread samples.

During the imaging process, every sample that was tested had cracking within it (Fig. 13). This
cracking was anywhere from a long crack that ran many millimeters, or just a break in the cell
edges. After modifying the process to have the ramp and soak function during the heating
process, less cracking was seen in the samples, however it was still prevalent.

12
 Figure 13. Cracking within samples most likely due to thermal cracking.

4. Discussion

Carbon foam from cake precursors are overall a stronger material. When doing compression
tests, these foams had an average of 0.9MPa higher strength than bread carbon foams. This stems
from the structure of cake versus bread. Cake is a much denser material and the cell walls of this
material are much thicker than that of bread which could be seen in the SEM images. There were
also more closed cells in the structure rather than open cells. Cake’s structure comes from the
baking soda which is it’s leavening agent. Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate,
reacts with acid to produce carbon dioxide. Also at high temperatures (above 80°C), it begins to
break down releasing carbon dioxide. This is what happened within the cake batter while it was
cooking, producing cells within the structure and raising the batter. This release of gas is uniform
throughout the structure if it mixed. In some of the original samples, there was less uniformity in
the pores throughout the structure. This was caused by the minimal mixing of the samples before
baking, causing the baking soda not to be spread out uniformly throughout the batter.

Bread also gets its structure from its leavening agent, yeast. Yeast works by consuming sugar
that enzymes in the yeast and the flour break down from the starch molecules. When the yeast
metabolizes the simple sugars, it exudes a liquid that in turn releases carbon dioxide and alcohol
into already existing air bubbles in the dough. Part of the process of kneading the dough

13
introduces this air into the dough in addition to mixing the dough. This process of kneading also
strengthens the bread by encouraging flour and water to interact and form more gluten. The
formation of gluten structures causes this increase in strength. Kneading time as well as time in
which the bread was left to raise was not changed during this process. With the samples that
were produced, the lower end compressive strength of carbon foams currently on the market was
not reached, however it was only about 0.1MPa below that. Changing these times has the
potential to create a stronger material and structure.

Cake has a high potential to be a cheap, environmentally friendly alternative to what is currently
on the market for structural applications. It has a higher compressive strength than lower strength
compressive foams. Less leavening agent can be used to create thicker cell walls. The amount of
oil and eggs can also be modified to change the structure of the material. Bread, although it did
not reach the lower end compressive strength, still has the potential to be a good alternative. It is
even cheaper than cake to produce. As seen in the compressive strength data, it is better to avoid
additives because of the flaws it creates in the lattice producing a significantly lower carbon
foam.

Due to the limitation of the oven, kiln and chamber size, the sample sizes were extremely
limited. There is easily an ability to make larger batches of these samples to produce large pieces
or sheets. Samples can also be baked in any shape container. Paired with the ability of these
samples to be sanded with ease, it allows for a large array of shapes and parts to be made for
different applications.

Carbon foam also has the capability of being a new material to an old problem. Oil spills happen
and as a result, thousands of animals are affected and billions of dollars go into cleaning up the
miles of damage that is done. Carbon foam with its hydrophobic, but lipophilic qualities allow it
to be a great solution to this problem. The Exxon Valdez oil spill had 11 million gallons of oil
spilled into the BP Golf Coast and cost $7 billion to clean it up. Knowing that one piece of
carbon foam can absorb 90% of their volume in oil, it would have taken 42.5million loaves of
bread which is about $42.5million. This is a cheaper alternative and also has the potential to
allow for the recollection of oil. Carbon foam is easily sanded which helped with shaping the
foams for testing. This property could be used to crush down the foams once they are recollected
in order to get the oil back that was absorbed.

14
6. Conclusions

1. Cake carbon foam has a higher compressive strength than bread which comes from the
structure that is produced from the leavening agents used.
2. Cake has already proven it has potential, once it can be industrially manufactured, to be a
viable alternative to carbon foam currently on the market for structural applications.
Bread is only 0.1 MPa away from surpassing the commercial foam minimum and with
modifications could be an alternative as well.
3. Carbon foam is hydrophobic and lipophilic which allows it to be a viable option for oil
spill clean ups.

15
7. References

1
Chen, Youming, Raj Das, and Mark Bak Battley, “Effects of Cell Size and Cell Wall Thickness
Variations on the Strength of Closed-Cell Foams.” International Journal of Engineering Science,
vol. 120, 2017, pp. 220-240.
2
Firestone, Rebecca. “QII HERS Credit Now Allows Open Cell Spray Foam.” Green
Compliance, Insulation and Project Management,
greencomplianceplus.markenglisharchitects.com/blog/2011/12/19/qii-hers-credit-now-allows-
open-cell-spray-foam/.
3
Xu, Fei, Dingcai Wu, Ruowen Fu, and Bingqing Wei. “Design and Preparation of Porous
Carbons from Conjugated Polymer Precursors,” Biochemical Pharmacology, vol.00, no. 00,
2017.
4
Inagaki, ichio, Jieshan Qiu, and Quangui Guo. “Carbon Foam: Preparation and Application.”
Carbon, vol. 87, 2017, pp. 128-152.
5
Lei, Shiwen, Quangui Guo, Jingli Shi, and Lang Liu. “Preparation of Phenolic-Based Carbon
Foam with Controllable Pore Structure and High Compressive Strength.” Carbon, vol. 48, no. 9,
2010, pp. 2644-2646
6
Chen, Chong, Elliot B. Kennel, Alfred H. Stiller, Peter G. Stansberry, and John W. Zondlo.
“Carbon Foam Derived from Various Precursors.” Carbon, vol. 44, no.8, 2006, pp. 1535-1543.
7
Farhan, Shameel, Rumin Wang, and Dandon Zhang. “Carbon Foam with Channel like Pores
Prepared from Reactive Blended Allyl Novolac with Bismaleimide Using Different Cross-
Linking Inititors.” Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, vol. 125, 2017, pp. 328-334.
8
Inagaki, Michio, Takahiro Morishita, Akitoshi Kuno, Takayuki Kito, Masanori Hirano, Taisuke
Suwa, and Kouichi Kusakawa. “Carbon Foams Prepared from Polyimide Using Urethane Foam
Template.” Carbon, vol. 42, no. 3, 2004, pp. 497-502.
9
Mesalhy, Osama, Khalid Lafdi, and Ahmed Elgafy. “Carbon Foam Matrices Saturated with
PCM for Thermal Protection Purposes.” Carbon., vol. 44, no. 10, 2017, pp. 2080-2088.
10
Gallego, Nidia C, and James W Klett. “Carbon Foams for Thermal Management.” Carbon,
vol. 41, no. 7, 2003, pp. 1461-1466.
Wang, Xinying, Jiming Zhong, Yimin Wang, and Mingfang Yu. “A Study of the Properties of
11

Carbon Foam Reinforced by Clay.” Carbon, vol. 44, no. 8, 2006, pp. 1560-1564.
Balandin, Alexander A. “Thermal Properties of Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes and Nanostru13ctured
12

Carbon Materials.” 2017.

13
Mecuri, RA, TR Wessendorf, and JM Criscione. “Carbon Foam:It’s Preparation and
Properties.” Prepr Pap-Am Chem Soc, Div… (1968): 103-108. Web.

16
14
Ashby, M.F. “The Properties of Foams and Lattices.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 364.1838 (5006): 15-30. Web.
15
Yuan, Ye, Yujie Ding, Chunhui Wang, Fan Xu, Zaishan Lin, Yuyang Qin, Ying Li, Minglong
Yang, Xiaodong He, Qingyu Peng, and Yibin Li. “Multifunctional Stiff Carbon Foam Derived
from Bread.” ACS Applied Material and Interfaces, vol. 8, no. 6, 2016, pp. 16852-1861.
16
Wu, X. L.; Wen, T.; Guo, H. L.; Yang, S.; Wang, X.; Xu, A. W. “Biomass-Derived Sponge-
like Carbonaceous Hydrogels and Aerogels for Supercapacitors.” ACS Nano, vol. 7, 2013, pp.
3589−3597.
17
Liu, R. L., F. Y. Yin, J. F. Zhang, J. Zhang, and Z. Q. Zhang, “Intestine-like
Micro/mesoporous Carbon Built of Chemically Modified Banana Peel for Size-selective
Separation of Proteins.” RSC Advance, vol. 4, 2014, pp. 21465−21470.
18
Ren, Y. M.; Xu, Q.; Zhang, J. M.; Yang, H. X.; Wang, B.; Yang, D. Y.;Hu, J. H.;Liu,Z.M.
“Functionalization of Biomass Carbonaceous Aerogels: Selective Preparation of MnO2@CA
Composites for Supercapacitors.” ACS Applied Material Interfaces, 2014, vol. 6, pp. 9689−9697.
19
Yang, Y.; Z. Tong, T. Ngai, and C. Wang, “Nitrogen-Rich and Fire- Resistant Carbon
Aerogels for the Removal of Oil Contaminants from Water.” ACS Applied Material Interfaces,
vol. 6, 2014, pp. 6351−6360.
20
Liang, Q., L. Ye, Z. H. Huang, Q. Xu, Y. Bai, F. Kang, and Q. H. Yang, “A Honeycomb-like
Porous Carbon Derived from Pomelo Peel for Use in High-performance Supercapacitors.”
Nanoscale, vol. 6, 2014, pp. 13831−13837.

17