RESUMEN

The elastic properties and/or flexibility of polymer reinforced silica aerogels having methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and bis(trimethoxysilylpropyl)amine (BTMSPA) making up the silica structure are examined. The dipropylamine spacer from BTMSPA is used both to provide a flexible linking group in the silica structure, and as a reactive site via its secondary amine for reaction with a tri-isocyanate, Desmodur N3300A. The tri-isocyanate provides an extended degree of branching or reinforcement, resulting in increased compressive strength of the aerogel monoliths while the overall flexibility arising from the underlying silica structure is maintained. The compressive moduli of the reinforced aerogel monoliths in this study range from 0.001 to 158 MPa. Interestingly, formulations across this entire range of modulus recover nearly all of their length after two compressions to 25% strain. Differences in pore structure of the aerogels due to processing conditions and solvent are also discussed.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

The effect of incorporating an organic linking group, 1,6-bis(trimethoxysilyl)hexane (BTMSH), into the underlying silica structure of a styrene cross-linked silica aerogel is examined. Vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) is used to provide a reactive site on the silica backbone for styrene polymerization. Replacement of up to 88 mol % of the silicon from tetramethoxyorthosilicate with silicon derived from BTMSH and VTMS during the making of silica gels improves the elastic behavior in some formulations of the cross-linked aerogels, as evidenced by measurement of the recovered length after compression of samples to 25% strain. This is especially true for some higher density formulations, which recover nearly 100% of their length after compression to 25% strain twice. The compressive modulus of the more elastic monoliths ranged from 0.2 to 3 MPa. Although some of these monoliths had greatly reduced surface areas, changing the solvent used to produce the gels from methanol to ethanol increased the surface area in one instance from 6 to 220 m(2)/g with little affect on the modulus, elastic recovery, porosity, or density.