Carbon Fiber Foam Composites and Methods for Making the Same

Exemplary embodiments provide methods and apparatus of forming fibrous carbon foams (FCFs). In one embodiment, FCFs can be formed by flowing a fuel rich gas mixture over a catalytic material and components to be encapsulated in a mold to form composite carbon fibers, each composite carbon fiber having a carbon phase grown to encapsulate the component in situ. The composite carbon fibers can be intertwined with one another to form FCFs having a geometry according to the mold.