Aerogels are a unique class of materials results  attractive for many applications such as thermal and acoustic insulation, capacitors, or catalysis.In this study monolithic polymeric aerogels based on thermoplastic uncrosslinked polymers, where the knots of the three-dimensional networks are physical, formed  by crystallites, are presented. In particular aerogels, where the crystallites that constitute the physical knots exhibit a nanoporous-crystalline form were prepared from polymers that exhibit a nanoporous crystalline phase,.e.g. syndiotactic polystyrene (s-PS).The achievement  of aerogels with nanofillers such as organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) and graphene oxide (GO),is described. Aerogels, with large amounts of both intercalated and exfoliated OMMT and including the nanoporous-crystalline d form of s-PS, were prepared. Also for high OMMT content, the aerogel preparation procedures occur without re-aggregation of the exfoliated clay, which is instead observed for other kinds of polymer processing.  Analogous aerogels were prepared with GO leading to complete GO exfoliation as well as its substantial reduction.The most important result of the study is that the aerogel preparation allows the inclusion of also large amount of nanofillers, without aggregation, at least up to a content of 20 wt%. This allows to improve mechanical and electrical properties of the nanoporous-crystalline aerogels of s-PS, which are particularly suitable to remove selectively traces of pollutants from water and air.Composite aerogels exhibiting large nanofiller content, can be also used as masterbatches for polymer composites.

Monolithic polymeric aerogels with nanofillers

247th National Meeting (2014)

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