Open AccessModelling and optimisation of sodium silicate based silica aerogel synthesis using response surface methodology
Author(s) -
Mirzaee Seyed Saeed,
Salahi Esmaeil,
Khanlarkhani Ali
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
micro and nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1750-0443
DOI - 10.1049/mnl.2018.0093
Subject(s) - aerogel , sodium silicate , response surface methodology , central composite design , composite number , materials science , specific surface area , chemical engineering , bet theory , silica gel , composite material , chromatography , chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , engineering
The purpose of this work was to model and optimise the preparation of silica aerogel using low‐cost material and modified sol–gel process. A central composite design was employed to optimise the synthesis factors. Among all factors discussed in literatures, silica concentration, gelation time and hydrophobic agent amount were the most efficacious ones. All experiments were performed at the same conditions, but the elected factors were varied in five levels. The response (density of silica aerogel) was fitted by quadratic regression model to find the optimal condition. Computation results showed that the minimum density of silica aerogel was achieved at silica concentration of 4.12 g/l, acid amount of 14.46 ml and trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) consumption of 10.39 ml. The best density of silica aerogel was 0.078915 g/cm 3 and the specific surface area determined by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis was 780 m 2 /g.