Silica Aerogel: Synthesis and Application

Ph D Seminar (CLS 802)

Submitted In Partial Fulfillment for Award Of The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy In Chemical Engineering

Submitted By

Inderdip P Shere
Roll No 124020001

Under The Guidance Of

Dr. Ateeque Malani

Department Of Chemical Engineering Indian Institute Of Technology, Bombay April 2013

Ph.D. SEMINAR REPORT

On

Silica Aerogel: synthesis and application

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering

Prepared by Inderdip Pradipkumar Shere. Roll No124020001

Under the Guidance of Dr. Ateeque Malani

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY POWAI, MUMBAI 400076. Date: April, 2013

ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE

The seminar report entitled Silica Aerogel: Synthesis and Application submitted by Inderdip P Shere (124020001) may please be accepted for evaluation.

Date:

Signature

Dr. Ateeque Malani

For Faculty:

If you choose not to sign the acceptance certificate above, please indicate the reason for the same from amongst those give below:

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The amount of time and effort put by the student is not sufficient; The amount of work put in by the student is not sufficient; Any other objection (please elaborate):

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my supervisor Dr. Ateeque Malani for accepting me under his esteemed guidance and spending his valuable time for guiding me to prepare the report. His valuable suggestions, logical and rational reasoning and scientific knowledge have enormously benefitted me and have made this report a better one. I would also like to thank all my friends for providing their valuable insights and guidance whenever required. Without your constant help and encouragement this report would not have been an easy task. My wonderful family which has been my constant source of motivation and inspiration all my love is for you. With you in my life, every day is an intense and fascinating experience. Finally, I would like to thank God for providing me with the strength and perseverance to successfully complete this report.

Inderdip Pradipkumar Shere

Abstract
Silica aerogel posses excellent materialistic properties and has large potential to be used in various day to day applications. It have been prepared by sol gel technology and dried at supercritical condition of solvent. There are two main reactions which are responsible for aerogel formation are hydrolysis and condensation. Entire preparation step can be broadly divided into gel formation, aging and drying. Each step has its specific contribution in final silica aerogel. Various properties of silica aerogel can be measured or estimated. With its superior properties like high porosity, low density, large surface area, low thermal conductivity, etc, it have employed or have potential to be used in sectors like, reaction engineering, biotechnology, space science, etc. Silica aerogel is expensive to prepare because of its costly raw materials and supercritical drying. Hence, challenges posed are to develop low cost production of aerogel.

List of Figures
Figure 1: Sol gel reactions Figure 2: Silica precursor (alkoxysilane) Figure 3: Effect of pH on relative rate of hydrolysis and condensation Figure 4: Capillary forces in hydrophilic and hydrophobic silica aerogel Figure 5: Silylating of silica gel Figure 6: Silylation agents 2 2 3 4 5 5

List of Tables
Table 1: Properties of Silica aerogel 8

Contents

A. Introduction B. Synthesis 1. Gel formation 2. Aging 3. Drying 4. Additive C. Charaterization 1. Pore structure 2. Thermal conductivity 3. Optical Properties 4. Surface property D. Application 1. Reaction engineering 2. Biotechnology 3. Architectural application 4. Physical science 5. Space science research E. Summary and Conclusion F. Scope for future work G. Bibliography

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