Characterization of nano-porous silica-zirconia aerogels

SiO2-ZrO2 aerogels; sol-gel; supercritical drying; nano-porous Abstract. Highly Nano-porous SiO2-ZrO2 aerogels were manufactured with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and zirconyl nitrate dihydrate (ZrO(NO3)(2)5H(2)O) by the sol-gel method followed by supercritical drying technique. The prepared aerogels are performed by SEM, FT-IR and BET to characterize and analyze the morphology and pore structure of SiO2-ZrO2 aerogels. The results showed that:(i) The areogels are the typical of nano pores in the interval between 1 < D-p < 30 nm; (ii) the specific surface areas varied from 300 to 620 m(2)/g with (S-BET)(MAX) = 615.5 m(2)/g with 35wt% Zirconia and the surface areas decreased with the increase of zirconia; The thermal conductivity attains 0.015 W/(mk); (iii) a mass of Si-O-Zr bands existed in the aerogels indicating a homogeneous distribution of the components on the nano scale.