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Facile preparation of ZrCO composite aerogel with high specific surface area and low thermal conductivity

  • Original Paper: Nano- and macroporous materials (aerogels, xerogels, cryogels, etc.)
  • Published:
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Abstract

A novel ZrCO composite aerogel is synthesized using zirconium oxychloride and resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) as precursors through the sol–gel route and carbothermal reduction process. The effects of different Zr/R molar ratios and calcination temperatures on the physical chemistry properties of ZrCO aerogels are investigated. The ZrCO composite aerogel consists of the C/ZrO2/ZrC ternary aerogel. The results show that with the increase of R/Zr molar ratios, the specific surface area and bulk density increase with calcination temperature up to 1300 °C, but decrease at even temperature (1500 °C). The specific surface area is as high as 637.4 m2/g for ZrCO composite aerogel (R:Zr = 2:1), which was higher than ever reported. As the heat-treatment temperature increases to 1500 °C, the ZrC crystalline phase occurs and the t-ZrO2 phase still appears within the composite. The thermal conductivity of the carbon fiber mat-reinforced composite aerogel is as low as 0.057 W/m/K at room temperature (25 °C).

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Industry Program of Science and Technology Support Project of Jiangsu Province (BE2016171), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT_15R35), the Major Program of Natural Science Fund in Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province (15KJA430005), the Prospective Joint Research Program of Jiangsu Province (BY2015005-01), the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX17_0977), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 210009, Nanjing, China

    Sheng Cui, Hao Suo, Feng Jing, Shuwen Yu, Jun Xue, Xiaodong Shen, Benlan Lin & Shengjun Jiang

  2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, Nanjing Tech University, 210009, Nanjing, China

    Sheng Cui, Hao Suo, Feng Jing, Shuwen Yu, Xiaodong Shen & Shengjun Jiang

  3. Institute of Chemistry Materials, CAEP, 621900, Mianyang, China

    Yu Liu

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  1. Sheng Cui
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  2. Hao Suo
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  3. Feng Jing
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  4. Shuwen Yu
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  5. Jun Xue
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  6. Xiaodong Shen
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  7. Benlan Lin
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  8. Shengjun Jiang
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  9. Yu Liu
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Correspondence to Sheng Cui.

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Highlights

  • We have developed a sol–gel route to synthesize the ZrCO composite aerogel using inexpensive inorganic salts of zirconium.

  • The ZrC crystalline phase occurs and the t-ZrO2 phase still appears within the composite at 1500 °C.

  • The specific surface area of the ZrCO composite aerogel is as high as 637.4 m2/g.

  • The thermal conductivities of the carbon fiber mat-reinforced composite aerogel are as low as 0.057 W/m/K (25 °C).

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Cui, S., Suo, H., Jing, F. et al. Facile preparation of ZrCO composite aerogel with high specific surface area and low thermal conductivity. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 86, 383–390 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4638-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4638-6

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