Nano-Engineering Silica Aerogel: an Eco-Friendly Entry to Glassy Materials

A Green and environmentally friendly method to obtain pure glassy materials through nano-engineered silica aerogel using silicone tetrachloride [Si(Cl)4] as a liquid precursor in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is proposed. The objective of this study was to utilize a modified sol-gel protocol to prepare glass from simple, safe and inexpensive liquid precursors without using solid precursors and the traditional melting technique which needs a high temperature and melting process. The obtained preliminary results from FTIR , DSC, TGA and XRD experiments, reveled that based on the base-catalyzed treatment of Si (Cl)4 with ethanol at room temperature followed a hydroxylation and condensation of the mixture in scCO2; an amorphous and organic-free silica aerogel was obtained. This method provides a very efficient low temperature processing route for SiO2 glass manufacturing in a clean, environmentally friendly and mild reaction conditions. In this paper, we will show our preliminary results and data. More experiments in this field are under investigation in our laboratories.