Robust superhydrophobic bridged silsesquioxane aerogels with tunable performances and their applications.

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.

Published: January 2015

AI Article Synopsis

  • Aerogels are highly porous materials that often have poor mechanical properties, which limits their applications.
  • This study uses thiol-ene chemistry to create new bridged silsesquioxane (BSQ) precursors that enhance the mechanical strength and enable customization of aerogel morphology through different alkoxy groups.
  • The resulting BSQ aerogels exhibit superhydrophobic properties and have potential applications in oil/water separation and acoustic materials, achieving the lowest density for aerogels dried at ambient pressure.

Article Abstract

Aerogels are a family of highly porous materials whose applications are commonly restricted by poor mechanical properties. Herein, thiol-ene chemistry is employed to synthesize a series of novel bridged silsesquioxane (BSQ) precursors with various alkoxy groups. On the basis of the different hydrolyzing rates of the methoxy and ethoxy groups, robust superhydrophobic BSQ aerogels with tailorable morphology and mechanical performances have been prepared. The flexible thioether bridge contributes to the robustness of the as-formed aerogels, and the property can be tuned on the basis of the distinct combinations of alkoxy groups with the density of the aerogels almost unchanged. To the best of our knowledge, the lowest density among the ambient pressure dried aerogels is obtained. Further, potential application of the aerogels for oil/water separation and acoustic materials has also been presented.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/am5077765DOI Listing

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