Abstract
Here we study how graphene oxide affects silica aerogels and their physical and mechanical properties by examining volume shrinkage, pore volume, surface area and compressive strength of these composite aerogels. Composite aerogels were made through adding different amount of graphene oxide (GO) to sodium silicate precursor by using ambient pressure drying method. Additionally, the chemical composition of the composite aerogels was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. A rougher structure was observed when the GO loading increased and the characteristic peak of GO in XRD disappeared due to the random distribution of GO within the silica matrix. FTIR spectrum of composite aerogels shows that the relative intensity of silanol groups on the silica matrix have downward tendency with the addition of GO. The specific surface area had maxima with the addition of 0.01 wt% GO surface area to 578 m2 /g. The mechanical strength of aerogels was increased, with the loading of GO from 0.0 wt% to 0.2 wt%, and the compressive modulus increased from 0.02 MPa to 0.22 MPa.
Highlights
Silica aerogel, first prepared by Kistler in 1931, is one of the most popular aerogels [1]
We demonstrated the production of graphene oxide reinforced silica aerogels by using sodium silicate as a precursor and Ambient pressure drying (APD) method with the sodium bicarbonate solution as the drying solvent
The influences of graphene oxide (GO) on the mechanical and physical properties of silica aerogel composites were analysed by investigating compressive strength, volume shrinkage, pore volume, chemical composition and surface area of the composite aerogels
Summary
First prepared by Kistler in 1931, is one of the most popular aerogels [1]. Aerogels are porous (up to 99.8%) nano-structured materials with remarkable properties such as high surface area (up to 1200 m 2/g) [2,3,4], extremely low thermal conductivity (down to 0.01 W m− 1 K− 1), low sound speed (down to 100 m/s), low refractive index (1.05) and dielectric constant (1.0–2.0) [4,5,6]. GO treated as cross-linking points to greatly improve the mechanical properties and the thermal stabilities of the network of the composite aerogels These GO/silica-based composite aerogels can be promising for applications under some harsh and extreme conditions [27]. We demonstrated the production of graphene oxide reinforced silica aerogels by using sodium silicate as a precursor and APD method with the sodium bicarbonate solution as the drying solvent (which was suggested previously as a viable alternative [15]). The influences of GO on the mechanical and physical properties of silica aerogel composites were analysed by investigating compressive strength, volume shrinkage, pore volume, chemical composition and surface area of the composite aerogels
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