Study on Preparation and Properties of Silica Aerogel
The highly crosslinked porous reticulated silica aerogels have the advantages of high specific surface area,high porosity and low density.Silica aerogels have been widely used in aerospace,military applications,energy saving buildings and so on.Four precursors were obtained by controlling the water content in the preparation process using tetramethoxysilane as silicon source.Silica aerogels were successfully prepared by one-step synthesis method with different precursors under atmospheric pressure.The method for aerogels preparation has the characteristics of short process time,less solvent usage and low energy consumption.The properties of sample prepared were characterized by infrared spectrum analysis,thermogravimetric analysis,X-ray diffraction analysis and contact angle measurement.It was found that the prepared silica aerogels had good thermal stability and hydrophobicity.