If you bake bread at high temperature without oxygen present you can create CARBON FOAM.
It’s strong, light… I think porus though? It’s also magnetic slightly… some have tried magnetics before to reduce water surface tension… and had that create a delam problem. Still… definately worth investigating anything that helps develop foam at home.
Is it economical? Not sure. Start with some moldy bread from a supermarket, bake and glue to form a blank…
eventually move up into increasing the yeast to press into a mold?
I really don’t like foam because it’s a pain to ship and get in some places, plus the environment cost of course so I find this exciting. If I had an oven I’d try it myself but at the moment I’m living in Asia… so a thing to try at a later date
Links:
http://acsh.org/news/2016/07/08/burnt-bread-makes-an-excellent-carbon-foam/
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/4sidzr/burning_bread_in_the_absence_of_oxygen_creates/
edit: To actually do this you only need to reduce the air in the burn - you don’t need full oxygen removal as flames can do that for you. Thus, simplest way to try it is - put some break in a old baked bean can and close the lid. Then chuck it in a fire or a very hot oven. Although there’s some gap at the top the oxygen is vastly reduced. I’d try it right now but I’m in a very urban area with no oven.
