Improving Elastic Properties of Polymer-Reinforced Aerogels

Improving Elastic Properties of Polymer-Reinforced Aerogels 

Meador NASA Glenn Research Center, Mailstop 49-3, Cleveland, OH 44135, USA e-mail maiyann.meador nasa.gov 

Aegerter et al. (eds.). Aerogels Handbook, Advances in Sol-Gel Derived Materials and Technologies, DOl 10.1007/978-l-4419-7589-8 15, 

Kanamori et al. [31], using a surfactant to control pore size and a slightly different process, have shown that MTMS-dehved gels demonstrate reversible deformation on compression. In fact, some formulations were able to be dried ambiently. Initially, the gels shrink about 65% but spring back to nearly their original size, resulting in nearly the same density and pore structure as those dried supercritically. 

Though the MTMS -derived aerogels are very flexible and elastic, it does not take much force to compress them. For example, Rao [28] reports a Young s modulus of only 0.03-0.06 MPa for the flexible MTMS-derived aerogels ranging in density from 0.04 to 0.1 g/cm. Kanamori [29] does not report Young s modulus, but stress-strain curves indicate that stresses of less than 1 MPa are sufficient to compress samples with bulk densities around 0.2 g/cra to 25% strain. 

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