scholarly journals Carbon Nanomaterials in Silica Aerogel Matrices

2010 ◽  
Vol 1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher E. Hamilton ◽  
Manuel E Chavez ◽  
Juan G. Duque ◽  
Gautam Gupta ◽  
Stephen Doorn ◽  
...  

AbstractSilica aerogels are ultra low-density, high surface area materials that are extremely good thermal insulators and have numerous technical applications. However, their mechanical properties are not ideal, as they are brittle and prone to shattering. Conversely, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and graphene-based materials, such as graphene oxide, have extremely high tensile strength and possess novel electronic properties. By introducing SWNTs or graphene-based materials into aerogel matrices, it is possible to produce composites with the desirable properties of both constituents. We have successfully dispersed SWNTs and graphene-based materials into silica gels. Subsequent supercritical drying results in monolithic low-density composites having improved mechanical properties. These nanocomposite aerogels have great potential for use in a wide range of applications.

Author(s):  
Gabriela Fujita de Freitas ◽  
Julian Martinez ◽  
Juliane Viganó

Aerogels are materials with an open porous, low density and high surface area, which make them an interesting material to carry target compounds. The proposal of this work was to produce gellan aerogels and to study the effect of the diffusion method and internal setting method, the temperature of the gellan pre-treatment, and the addition of inulin on the aerogel shrinkage during the process. The aerogels were produced through hydrogel formulation, solvent exchange to obtain alcogel, and supercritical drying with carbon dioxide. The addition of inulin has reduced the shrinkage, but gelling methods to avoid the inulin loss must be studied, as the oil containing the gelling agent.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1468
Author(s):  
Ummu Raihanah Hashim ◽  
Aidah Jumahat ◽  
Mohammad Jawaid

Basalt fibre (BF) is one of the most promising reinforcing natural materials for polymer composites that could replace the usage of glass fibre due to its comparable properties. The aim of adding nanofiller in polymer composites is to enhance the mechanical properties of the composites. In theory, the incorporation of high strength and stiffness nanofiller, namely graphene nanoplatelet (GNP), could create superior composite properties. However, the main challenges of incorporating this nanofiller are its poor dispersion state and aggregation in epoxy due to its high surface area and strong Van der Waals forces in between graphene sheets. In this study, we used one of the effective methods of functionalization to improve graphene’s dispersion and also introducing nanosilica filler to enhance platelets shear mechanism. The high dispersive silica nanospheres were introduced in the tactoids morphology of stacked graphene nanosheets in order to produce high shear forces during milling and exfoliate the GNP. The hybrid nanofiller modified epoxy polymers were impregnated into BF to evaluate the mechanical properties of the basalt fibre reinforced polymeric (BFRP) system under tensile, compression, flexural, and drop-weight impact tests. In response to the synergistic effect of zero-dimensional nanosilica and two-dimensional graphene nanoplatelets enhanced the mechanical properties of BFRP, especially in Basalt fibre + 0.2 wt% GNP/15 wt% NS (BF-H0.2) with the highest increment in modulus and strength to compare with unmodified BF. These findings also revealed that the incorporation of hybrid nanofiller contributed to the improvement in the mechanical properties of the composite. BF has huge potential as an alternative to the synthetic glass fibre for the fabrication of mechanical components and structures.


Author(s):  
Guru Venkatesan ◽  
Andy Sarles

Droplet-based biomolecular arrays form the basis for a new class of bioinspired material system, whereby decreasing the sizes of the droplets and increasing the number of droplets can lead to higher functional density for the array. In this paper, we report on a non-microfluidic approach to form and connect nanoliter-to-femtoliter, lipid-coated aqueous droplets in oil to form micro-droplet interface bilayers (μDIBs). Two different modes of operation are reported for dispensing a wide range of droplet sizes (2–200μm radius). Due to the high surface-area-to-volume ratios of microdroplets at these length scales, droplet shrinking is prominent, which affects the stability and lifetime of the bilayer. To better quantify these effects, we measure the shrinkage rates for 8 different water droplet/oil compositions and study the effect of lipid placement and lipid type on morphological changes to μDIBs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuray Kizildag

Ceramic materials are well known for their hardness, inertness, superior mechanical and thermal properties, resistance against chemical erosion and corrosion. Ceramic nanofibers were first manufactured through a combination of electrospinning with sol–gel method in 2002. The electrospun ceramic nanofibers display unprecedented properties such as high surface area, length, thermo-mechanical properties, and hierarchically porous structure which make them candidates for a wide range of applications such as tissue engineering, sensors, water remediation, energy storage, electromagnetic shielding, thermal insulation materials, etc. This chapter focuses on the most recent advances in the applications of ceramic nanofibers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 274 ◽  
pp. 05004
Author(s):  
Zhiyuan Lin ◽  
Ding Fan ◽  
Shangtong Yang

Cementitious nano-composites have recently attracted considerable research interest in order to improve their properties such as strength and durability. Graphene oxide (GO) is being considered as an ideal candidate for enhancing the mechanical properties of the cement due to its good dispersion property and high surface area. Much of work has been done on experimentally investigating the mechanical properties of GO-cementitious composites; but there are currently no models for accurate estimation of their mechanical properties, making proper analysis and design of GO-cement based materials a major challenge. This paper attempts to develop a novel multi-scale analytical model for predicting the elastic modulus of GO-cement taking into account the GO/cement ratio, porosity and mechanical properties of different phases. This model employs Eshelby tensor and Mori-Tanaka solution in the process of upscaling the elastic properties of GO-cement through different length scales. In-situ micro bending tests were conducted to elucidate the behavior of the GO-cement composites and verify the proposed model. The obtained results showed that the addition of GO can change the morphology and enhance the mechanical properties of the cement. The developed model can be used as a tool to determine the elastic properties of GO-cement through different length scales.


1993 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 3100-3105 ◽  
Author(s):  
F-M. Kong ◽  
J.D. LeMay ◽  
S.S. Hulsey ◽  
C.T. Alviso ◽  
R.W. Pekala

Carbon aerogels are synthesized via the aqueous polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde, followed by supercritical drying and subsequent pyrolysis at 1050 °C. As a result of their interconnected porosity, ultrafine cell/pore size, and high surface area, carbon aerogels have many potential applications such as supercapacitors, battery electrodes, catalyst supports, and gas filters. The performance of carbon aerogels in the latter two applications depends on the permeability or gas flow conductance in these materials. By measuring the pressure differential across a thin specimen and the nitrogen gas flow rate in the viscous regime, the permeability of carbon aerogels was calculated from equations based upon Darcy's law. Our measurements show that carbon aerogels have permeabilities on the order of 10−12 to 10−10 cm2 over the density range from 0.05–0.44 g/cm3. Like many other aerogel properties, the permeability of carbon aerogels follows a power law relationship with density, reflecting differences in the average mesopore size. Comparing the results from this study with the permeability of silica aerogels reported by other workers, we found that the permeability of aerogels is governed by a simple universal flow equation. This paper discusses the relationship among permeability, pore size, and density in carbon aerogels.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document