Properties of Dry Gels

a hst of outstanding physical prop erties of highly porous dry gels will be given, all of which are determined by sohd structure. In numerous research projects all over 

The following properties (Hrubesh, 1998 Hiisingand Schubert, 2006) only apply to gels with low solid fraction, that is, to porous media that cannot easily be created by other production routes  

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Because of their large pore volume, the mechanical properties of dried gels are several orders of magnitude lower than those of the dense silica, but the mechanical behavior seems identical to that of brittle materials like glasses. The bulk density is the main parameter which defines the elastic and brittle features, but two others parameters (pore size distribution and OH content) are also significant to describe and imderstand the whole mechanical behavior. Toughness measurements have shown that the flaw size responsible... 

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