Monolithic aerogel is promising as catalysts or catalyst support due to higher exposed active sites, faster diffusion and mass transfer and more facile catalyst recycle and reuse. However, traditional preparation process of monolithic aerogel involves energy- and time-consuming supercritical drying or freeze drying, and the obtained monolithic aerogel is very brittle. Here a fast and facile approach was developed to flexible monolithic silica aerogel by conventional drying. The monolithic aerogel exhibited good mechanical properties and durability to recover its size and shape following 80% compressive strain. Moreover, it had low density of less than 0.1 g/cm3 and was superhydrophobic with contact angle over 150o. The flexible crosslinking networks allowed metal oxide (i.e. CeO2, WO3, V2O5, etc.) nanomaterials with varied sizes and shapes to be immobilized, thus holding enormous industrial potential as moisture-resistant environmental catalysts, transparent photocatalysts and thermally self-sustained catalysts. This work also provides a general methodology to prepare diverse composite materials.

Facile and fast synthesis of flexible monolithic composite catalysts

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.