Mercury Porosimetry Applied to Sono-Aerogels

Sonogels are dense with fine and homogeneous structure because the absence of a common solvent of the metalorganic precursor + water and, mainly, because the ultrasound favour network reticulation. This fact represents that the elastic modulus is several order of magnitude higher than gels obtained without ultrasound. The combination of high stiffness and tiny porosity allows actual intrusion of Hg in a porosimetry experiment. In this paper the behaviour of under isostatic pressure a number of sonogels prepared under different conditions is presented.