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Water-glass based silica aerogel: unique nanostructured filler for epoxy nanocomposites

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Abstract

Due to the unique properties such as 3-dimensional nanoporous structure and high surface area, silica aerogel is a promising candidate for replacing the conventional micron-sized silica to improve the mechanical properties of epoxy-based nanocomposites. In the present study, the water-glass based silica aerogel was first synthesized by the low-cost sodium silicate and cheap ambient pressure drying method and then used as the filler in the epoxy system. Finally, rheological and mechanical properties of the silica aerogel-epoxy nanocomposite were investigated. The introduction of silica aerogel powders impacted the rheological properties of epoxy dispersion and improved the mechanical performance of the corresponding nanocomposite. The dispersion microstructure has been characterized by its rheological properties and has been used to determine the critical silica aerogel weight fraction of the network formation (φ*) for the silica aerogel-epoxy dispersion. At the critical filler concentrations (φ*), the overall mobility of the polymer chains is restricted in both dispersion and solid nanocomposites. Therefore, the network structure and the interface surrounding nanoparticles increases and this results in an improvement of the mechanical properties. Mechanical tests showed improvements in flexural modulus and strength by ~ 80% and ~ 40% respectively as compared with those of pure epoxy. Based on this study, water-glass based silica aerogel hold great promise as a low-cost filler in polymer composite.

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  1. Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran

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Salimian, S., Zadhoush, A. Water-glass based silica aerogel: unique nanostructured filler for epoxy nanocomposites. J Porous Mater 26, 1755–1765 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-019-00757-3

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