Abstract
Abstract Silica aerogels were obtained through a sol-gel process with tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) followed by supercritical drying with respect to CO 2 . Samples of different densities, different catalyst conditions, and different preparation processes including the common one-step and the special two-step sol-gel processes were investigated via small-angle x-ray scattering. The power-law dependence of the scattered intensity, a characteristic of fractal structures, was observed for all the one-step aerogels. A crossover from the power-law characteristic of fractal structures to surface scattering was also observed. For the aerogels derived from the two-step sol-gel process, no power-law dependence of the scattered intensity was observed, signifying a lack of fractal structure. Oxidation of the samples smoothed the particle surfaces but did not influence the aerogel structures. The monolithic xerogel was found to consist of spherical particles with size of about 10 nm.
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