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Rapid fabrication of low density melamine–formaldehyde aerogels

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Abstract

Low density melamine–formaldehyde (MF) aerogels were fabricated rapidly by adding the alkali to low concentration MF sol precursor before the formation of cross-linking. The gelation of the MF sol with the precursor concentration as low as 4% could be accomplished by the modified method. The gelation time for MF wet gels could be also reduced to even 5 h. After solvent exchanging and CO2 supercritical drying, the MF areogel with the lowest density of about 55 mg/cm3 could be prepared. The samples were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmittance electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms. The results indicated that the addition of the alkali to the MF sol precursor not only sped up the gelation process without changing the reaction mechanism, but also accomplished the low density MF aerogel.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51502274), the Doctoral Research Fund of Southwest University of Science and Technology (No. 15zx7137, 16zx7142), and the Research Fund for Joint Laboratory for Extreme Conditions Matter Properties (No. 13zxjk04, 14tdjk03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Laboratory for Extreme Conditions Matter Properties, Southwest University of Science and Technology and Research Center of Laser Fusion, Mianyang, 621010, China

    Hongbo Ren, Jiayi Zhu & Yutie Bi

  2. School of Material Science and Enginnering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, China

    Yewei Xu

  3. Research Center of Laser Fusion, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Lin Zhang

  4. Anhui Sun-Create Electronics Corporation, Ltd, Hefei, 230026, China

    Chengwei Shang

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  1. Hongbo Ren
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  3. Yutie Bi
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  4. Yewei Xu
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  5. Lin Zhang
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Correspondence to Hongbo Ren or Lin Zhang.

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Ren, H., Zhu, J., Bi, Y. et al. Rapid fabrication of low density melamine–formaldehyde aerogels. J Porous Mater 25, 351–358 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-017-0446-6

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