Reticulated Vitreous Carbon (RVC) Foam

Reticulated vitreous carbon is a form of glassy carbon. It has an open pore structure and extremely high porosity, giving a high surface area and low resistance to fluid flow. It is chemically inert in non-oxidising environments over a wide temperature range, maintains strength at high temperatures, and is thermally insulating yet electrically conducting.

Applications include use as porous electrodes, thermal insulation, filtration, substrate support and acoustic control. Vitreous or glassy carbon is a non - graphitizing or non - graphitizable carbon which combines glassy and ceramic properties with those of graphite. Unlike graphite, glassy carbon has a fullerene - related microstructure. This leads to a great variety of unique materials properties.

It has low thermal resistance. Because of the high surface area of the foam, heat transfer to/from fluids flowing through the foam is greatly accelerated. RVC foam is also ideal for use with phase change materials (PCM) because of the large amount of surface area, which increases coupling to PCM.

Reticulated Vitreous Carbon (RVC) is an excellent material for use as a porous electrode. The structure provides both low electrical and low fluid flow resistance. Large current distribution areas are possible due to the enormous amount of surface area of the foam.

Reticulated Vitreous Carbon (RVC) is uniquely strong at elevated temperatures. It also has a high scratch resistance at 6 - 7 mohs.

RVC is inert to a wide range of very reactive acids, bases, and organic solvents. At high temperatures it will form carbides, but is inert to non-carbide forming metals