Carbon nanopipes and ductwork with nanometric walls and methods of making the same

An array of nanopipes comprising:

• a durable graphitizable carbon wall of tunable thickness of about 10-500 nm formed by exposing a silica fiber network to a carbon precursor vapor and thereby depositing a carbon film onto the silica fiber network at a temperature suitable for complete pyrolysis of the carbon precursor and removing the silica fibers wherein the atmosphere of the step of depositing is controlled by a two-stage gas manifold wherein stage 1 purges the reaction chamber with pure argon flowing at 100 mL min−1 as measured at the exhaust and stage 2 introduces the carbon precursor and wherein the film creates nanoscopic three dimensional current collectors with enhanced electronic conductivity that scales as a function of carbon thickness and microstructure and can reach 100 S cm−1.