Structural Properties of TEOS Based Silica Aerogel

In this work, silica aerogels were prepared using sol-gel polymerization followed by supercritical drying method. Two steps acid-base catalyzed reaction of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was employed. Water and ethanol were used as solvent and cosolvent, respectively. Ammonium hydroxide and oxalic acid were used as catalysts. Pore size distribution and specificsurface area analyzed using Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) method. Finally, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the microstructure of prepared silica aerogels. They are comprised of a few nanometer SiO2 clusters, as could be observed in the SEM micrograph.

Keywords:

Silica , Aerogels , Microstructure , Sol-gel , Two Steps