Theoretical Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of the Chemical Vapor Deposition Process for the Manufacturing of a Highly Porous 3D Carbon Foam

Aerographite is a three-dimensional carbon foam with a tetrapodal morphology. The manufacturing of aerographite is carried out in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, based on a zinc oxide (ZnO) template, in which the morphology is replicated into a hollow carbon shell. During the replication process, the template is reduced by the simultaneous formation of the carbon structure. The CVD process is one of the most efficient methods for the manufacturing of various carbon nanostructures, such as graphene or carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Based on the growth mechanism of aerographite, a computational fluid dynamics model is presented for the fundamental investigations of the temperature and flow/microflow behavior during the replication process. This allows a deeper process understanding and further optimizations.