Textural properties of low-density xerogels

The extent of shrinkage during drying is controlled by the balance between the capillary pressure developed in the pore liquid and the modulus of the solid network. One first method to obtain low-density xerogels consists in strengthening TEOS-based alcogels by providing new monomers to the alcogel after gelation. In the second method, low-density xerogels are produced by surface modification (silylation) of the wet gel with trimethylchlorosilane. The capillary pressure is reduced and the presence of non-reactive species on the surface makes the shrinkage reversible. A reduction of the capillary pressure can be achieved by introduction of a substituted alkoxide 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane (EDAS) to a TEOS-based alcogel, synthesised in a single base-catalysed step. This additive acts as a nucleation agent leading to big silica particles (∼20 nm) with a low EDAS/TEOS ratio (∼0.03). The pores between those particles are also large and the drying stress is reduced. The textural properties of those three materials are compared: bulk densities of the samples modelled on the first and third method are varying in the same range (0.25–0.35 g/cm3) while xerogels obtained by the surface modification process are less dense (0.1–0.15 g/cm3). The biggest pores are observed in the third method.