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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

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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, MUMBAI400076.

Date: April, 2013

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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:

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

(Signature)

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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 toprepare 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 familywhich 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

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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.

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Sol gel reactions 2

Figure 2: Silica precursor (alkoxysilane) 2

Figure 3: Effect of pH on relative rate of hydrolysis and condensation 3

Figure 4: Capillary forces in hydrophilic and hydrophobic silica aerogel 4

Figure 5: Silylating of silica gel 5

Figure 6: Silylation agents 5

List of Tables

Table 1: Properties of Silica aerogel 8

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Contents

A.Introduction 1

B.Synthesis 11. Gel formation 22. Aging 33. Drying 44. Additive 6

C.Charaterization 61. Pore structure 62. Thermal conductivity 73. Optical Properties 74. Surface property 7

D.Application 81. Reaction engineering 82. Biotechnology 93. Architectural application 94. Physical science 95. Space science research 9

E.Summary and Conclusion 10F. Scope for future work 10G.

Bibliography 11