Characterization of a carbon felt electrode: structural and physical properties

Abstract

The aim of this paper is the characterization of a carbon felt (Le Carbone Lorraine, RVC 4002) to be used as three-dimensional electrode. A wide range of very different techniques were used in the physical and structural characterization of this material. Both structural (porosity, mean pore radius, specific surface area, tortuosity) and physical properties (permeability, electrical resistance) were determined by using mercury porosimetry, adsorption isotherm analysis, a filamentary analog procedure and liquid permeametry (pressure drop method). The results obtained from the modelling of the hydrodynamic behaviour, from previous work, were also applied here. The carbon felt studied was found to have a porosity around 0.98, a specific surface area of 22100-22700 m ^–1 , 2.7×10 ^–3 Ω m electrical resistivity and a tortuosity between 5 and 6. The comparison of these results with those found in the literature for other similar materials, used as three-dimensional electrodes, highlights the attractions of this carbon felt as a three-dimensional electrode.