Cluster structure of silica aerogel investigated by laser ablation

Abstract

Silica clusters were obtained by laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometry from fullerene-doped and carbon-doped silica aerogels, which can be explained by cluster assembly structure of silica aerogel and the doping conditions. The results reported here not only provide structural evidence for the proposed structure of silica aerogel, but also give a novel method to detect the cluster structures of aerogels.