Mechanistic insights into the formation of porous carbons from gelatin

Porous carbons are important for many energy applications. The biopolymer gelatin provides a simple and sustainable route to functional carbon foams with multimodal porosity. In this paper, small angle neutron scattering is applied alongside other techniques to elucidate the mechanism of formation of these foams. Analysis of the data demonstrates that combinations of different metal nitrates can be used to control foam macrostructure. Synergistic interaction of metal ions with the gelatin polypeptide changes the viscoelastic properties and thus controls foam formation.