Abstract
Silica aerogel (SA) is a nanoporous material and has attracted increasing attention in the field of thermal insulation in recent years. In this work, the thermal stability and pyrolysis characteristics of the methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) silica aerogel (MSA) prepared in pure water were investigated experimentally. The MSA shows a high thermal stability with the onset and peak temperature (Tonset and Tpeak) about 417 °C and 476 °C, respectively, in the pyrolysis process. The oxidation kinetics reveals that the pyrolysis of MSA can be divided into three stages with the average apparent activation energy (E) of each stage being 382.8 kJ/mol, 364.4 kJ/mol, and 328.9 kJ/mol, respectively. The pre-exponential factor (A) has the same tendency with the E. The TG-FTIR analysis demonstrates that the CO2 and H2O are the main volatiles during the pyrolysis process and all of them increase against the temperature. It is further observed that the production of CO2 presents a linear increase, and the H2O shows an obvious two-stage form along with the temperature. Compared with other hydrophobic SAs, the MSA has a larger Tonset and Tpeak and much larger E, indicating better thermal safety. The research outcomes provide a technical guide to analyze the thermal pyrolysis of hydrophobic SA and put a new insight to reduce their thermal hazards, which is beneficial to the development of higher-performance nanoporous silica aerogels for the thermal insulation field.
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Funding
The authors deeply appreciate the supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51904336), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2020JJ4714), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 202501003 and 202045001), the Innovation-Driven Project of Central South University (No. 2018CX025), and the Independent Exploration and Innovation Project for Graduate Students of Central South University (2020zzts704).
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Li, Z., Zhang, Y., Huang, S. et al. Thermal stability and pyrolysis characteristics of MTMS aerogels prepared in pure water. J Nanopart Res 22, 334 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-020-05062-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-020-05062-8