Nanocomposite Aerogel based on Silica Inorganic Polymer: Preparation and Properties

Aerogels are advanced materials consist of more than 96% air. The remained four percent is could be matrix of organic, inorganic or organic-inorganic materials[1]. Aerogels areprepared using sol-gel polymerization followed by a proper drying method such as supercritical drying [2]. Silica aerogelsare materials with unusual properties such as high specific surface area (500–1200m2/g), high porosity (80–99.8%), low density (0.003 g/cm3), high thermal insulation value (0.005W/mK), ultra low dielectric constant (k = 1.0–2.0) and low index of refraction (1.05) [3]. In this work silica aerogelprepared via polymerization of tetraethoxy silane(TEOS) in presence of basic catalyst, followed by supercritical drying.Kaolinite nanofiller was added in polymerization step. The actual nanofiller content was 5wt% with respect to silica content. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize themorphology of produced nanocomposite. The Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the morphology of neat and nanocomposite aerogels. The mechanical properties aerogels such as Young’s modulus and compressive strength were evaluated using compression testing method