Abstract
Aerogels are well suited as transparent insulation materials in solar architecture and collector systems. Their nanoporous structure provides a high solar transmittance and a low thermal conductivity, generally below 0.02 W m−1 K−1. Transparent aerogels with densities above 80 kgm−3 can easily be prepared at room temperature via a one-step sol-gel process with subsequent supercritical drying. Separating hydrolysis and condensation via a two-step method allows the preparation of transparent ultra-low density SiO2-aerogels. To optimize the optical properties, characterized by the scattering coefficient of the gels, we have investigated the influence of preparation parameters, such as pH-value of the sol-gel starting solution and macroscopic density, on the gel structure. To determine the nanostructure we performed spectral light scattering as well as small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements.
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