Nanoporous silica aerogel based thermal insulation composite are widely used in green insulation and flame retardant fields. Recently, particles and fibers are employed as additives for structural modification of silica aerogel in order to improve its mechanical property. In this work, we intended to utilize the addition a variety of silica-based molecular sieves, such as 3�, 4�, 5� molecular sieves and SBA-15 as additives for the silica aerogel structure modification, which could result to the enhancement of mechanical property of composites. All silica composite aerogel samples were synthesized as wet gels through the sol-gel process, followed by supercritical drying. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), nitrogen adsorption-desorption, steady-state methods, etc. were used to characterize aerogel samples. The compressive strength was increased with appropriate amount addition of molecular sieve or SBA-15 additives. Interestingly, it is observed that the gelation time was shortened significantly as well. This additive addition strategy provides a rapid approach for the synthesis of mechanical property enhanced silica composite aerogel. We thank the National Science & Technology Pillar Program of China (grant no. 2013BAJ01B00) for support.

Addition of silica-based molecular sieve for the enhancement of mechanical property of silica composite aerogel

248th National Meeting (2014)

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