Effect of Drying Control Agent on Physicochemical and Thermal Properties of Silica Aerogel Derived via Ambient Pressure Drying Process

This paper presents the effect of drying control agents on the physicochemical and thermal properties of hydrophobic silica aerogels derived via the ambient pressure drying (APD) method by a surface silylation using a TMCS/n-hexane mixture. The structural and physicochemical properties of synthesized DMF-modified and unmodified hydrophobic silica aerogels were characterized using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, thermo-gravimetric analysis, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopic techniques. Based on the obtained results, the differences in structure between samples before and after a surface silylation and the effect of drying control agents were documented. The structural measurements confirmed the efficient silylation process (TMCS/n-hexane), as well as the presence of DMF residues of hydrogen bonded with unreacted Si-OH silanol groups within the silica backbone after surface modification. Based on TG analysis, it was found that DMF addition improves thermal resistance (up to 320 °C) and hydrophobic character of prepared aerogel. Modification of the silica aerogel synthesis process by DMF also resulted in a significant increase in BET—the specific surface area, for the unmodified aerogel was ~828 m2/g, and for the DMF-modified aerogel more than 1200 m2/g—much higher than the value of silica aerogels available on the market.