Research Centre Germany
Aerogels are nanostructured highly porous materials. They provide the opportunity of a wide range of possible industrial
applications due to their unique optical, thermal and acoustic properties.
The sol-gel-polymerization of a various number of metal alkoxides leads to the formation of highly cross-linked gels. To
obtain inorganic aerogels the solvent of the pores has to be removed preserving the gel skeleton under supercritical
conditions.
Beside the inorganic aerogels also organic aerogels can be prepared by the polymerization of certain multifunctional
organic monomers. The removal of the pore solvent of aerogels formed of formaldehyde and resorcinol can be carried out
under ambient conditions depending on the ratios of the reactants and the catalyst.
In addition the
synthesis of aerogels based on biopolymers as cellulose has been realized (s. poster presentation), too.
The resulting materials have an ultra fine porous structure composed on interconnected colloidal particles (oligomers of
M-(OH)n, M-On particles or polymeric chains) with a typical size of 10nm and a high surface area of up to 2000m2/g.
Not only pure aerogels provide an unexpected brilliant quantity of properties also the combination of aerogel with
common materials promotes a great number of innovative ultra light composite materials. In each case the convincing
properties of the aerogels improve the new high tech materials for industrial applications.
