Pristine and modified exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnPs and M-xGnPs, respectively) were dispersed into a paraffin wax phase change material (PCM) in an effort to raise the thermal conductivity of the PCM. The addition of pure xGnPs would decrease the electrical resistivity of the composite PCM, ...
Ambient pressure dried hydrophobic silica aerogel monoliths were prepared via simultaneous solvent exchange and surface modification in order to minimize volume shrinkage and density. At room temperature, the obtained silica aerogels had a low density of 0.096 g/cm3, a high surface area and hydrophobicity, and ...
Composite silica aerogels were prepared using sodium silicate and ceramics fibers. The thermal conductivities of these composites were investigated to determine how effective they would be as thermal insulation. As temperature increased to 400oC, the thermal conductivity of these composites only increased from 0.0266 to 0.0572 W/(...
Ultralow density silica aerogels were formulated by sol-gel process using tetramethyl orthosilicate as the precursor. A supercritical drying step was performed using acetonitrile solvent extraction. These aerogels were found to have a high specific surface area (~812m2/g) and they were found to be excellent ...
The authors present a method of fiber-reinforced aerogel composites by impregnation of four layers of aligned glass fibers into silica sol layer-by-layer. The effect of different fiber alignments, as well as the effect of fiber lamination on the mechanical strength of the silica aerogel composites ...