Sodium silicate based aerogels via ambient pressure drying

Silica aerogels are the lightest of all solid substances having a very porous internal structure, which leads to a number of interesting properties. They possess very low thermal conductivity as well as a huge internal surface area. Now a day silica aerogels are used as thermal insulator in temperature-resistance windows, refrigerators, ovens etc. They are synthesized by the supercritical or ambient pressure drying of the liquid silica gels. But , the use of expensive alkoxide precursors and supercritical drying method for the synthesis of silica aerogels restricts their large scale production. So, for the commercialization purpose sol-gel processing of sodium silicate based aerogels via ambient pressure drying is described in this context and their physico-chemical properties are studied.

Autorentext

Dr. Uzma is working as a post-doctorate fellow (Brain Korean Fellow) in the Department of Material Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. She pursued her doctorate in the silica aerogels from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India. She has an authorship in the Aerogel Handbook of Sol-gel Science and Technology.