Advances in tailoring the water content in porous carbon aerogels using RT-Pulsed fluorination

Abstract The present work introduces a safe and efficient fluorination method, called RT-pulsed fluorination, proceeding under pure fluorine gas. The RT-pulsed fluorination enables to modify the surface chemistry of carbon aerogels (CAs), materials which suffer from water trapping into their porosity and their low degree of graphitization, hence limiting their application. This new fluorination route was developed to reach several goals, such as preventing the generation of structural defects, maintaining the tailored porous texture of the aerogel, favoring covalent C–F bonding without promoting CF2 and CF3 groups, and repulsing the water trapping into the porosity. The impact of the RT-pulsed fluorination on the conductivity will be also discussed.