Cellulose Cork/phenolic Aerogel Nanocomposites as a Lightweight Thermal Insulator

Abstract

Cork-based composites are one of the well-known insulators. In order to improve the properties of these composites, especially thermal conductivity, aerogel nanostructures that have low thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, density and high compressive strength can be used as fillers. Because of the low thermal conductivity of aerogels, thermal conductivity of final nanocomposite products can reduce. In this work, phenolic aerogels were first synthesized through sol-gel procedure. Then, prepared organic aerogels were dried at elevated temperatures and used to prepare nanocomposite of phenolic aerogels and cellulose cork. Thermal measurements and scanning electron microscope (SEM) technique were conducted on prepared nanocomposites. Through loading of small amounts of phenolic aerogel thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of nanocomposites were reduced about 38.8 and 44.8%, respectively.