Preparation And Performance Of Macromolecule-reinforced Aerogel Composites For Thermal Insulation

Nanoporous aerogels have broad application prospects in thermal insulation areaowning to their low thermal conductivity, supper hydrophobicity, low density andhigh temperature resistance. However, the aerogels generally have poor mechanicalproperties owing to their nanoporous nature and high porosity, and need to bereinforced to meet the practical requirements.Aiming at improving the mechanical properties of aerogel materials whilemaintaining low thermal conductivity, a series of aerogels composites weresuccessfully fabricated reinforced by three different microstructures polymermaterials(nanofibers, microparticles, and combined nanofibers and microparticles)via sol-gel process and drying at ambient pressure. Results showed that, Compared topure aerogel, three kinds of composites’s mechanical properties、structural stabilityare improve. Thermal conductivity of the composite materials based on differentmicrostructures polymer materials reinforced aerogel are0.039W·m-1·K-1、0.032W·m-1·K-1、0.027W·m-1·K-1，and the matrials have good hydrophobicity.I also study the affect of solvent type、solvent ratio and process method on threedifferent microstructures polymer materials reinforced aerogel. The aerogel fabricatedfrom the tetraethoxysiliane (TEOS) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) precursor hasbetter visible light transmittance. the mechanical properties of composites materialhas also been improved4.5times compared with EtOH precursor. The compositematerials based on electrospun nanofiber strengthened aerogel fabricated by expandthe amount of EtOH1times has lowest density (0.17g·cm-3）and lowest conductivity（0.022W·m-1·K-1）. Composite material were parepared through macromolecule strength aerogel. Thecomposite material has better insulation property(0.025W·m-1·K-1) and lowestdensity (0.19g·cm-3). The composite materials based on macromolecule strengthenedaerogel has good hydrophobicity.The compressive strength has been improved7timescompared to the aerogel.Three different microstructures polymer materials strength aerogel have beenprepared while maintaining low thermal conductivity, also do some research of theprocess optimization’s aspects and yielded some results. In future studies, betterperformance is expected by optimizing the process for preparing the materials.