Synthesis and characterization of multi-walled carbon nanotube doped silica aerogels

Abstract

Multi-walled carbon nanotube doped silica aerogels(MWCNT-SAs) were synthesized from a wet gel of well-dispersed MWCNT by one-step solvent exchange/surface modification and ambient pressure drying(APD). Waterglass was employed as a precursor to prepare wet gel. The content of MWCNT varied from 0 to 15% volume by wet gel. The surface group, thermal stability and microstructure of pure silica aerogel and MWCNT-SAs were investigated by FTIR, DTA, and TEM. Experimental results show that MWCNT-SAs are hydrophobic when the temperature is below 400 °C, MWCNT-SAs exhibit a mesoporous network structure, and they achieve the largest scale with least shrinkage and lowest density when doped with 5 vol% MWCNT.

Keywords

multi-walled carbon nanotubes(MWCNT) / silica aerogels / ambient pressure drying(APD)

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