Robust, ultra-insulative and transparent polyethylene-based hybrid silica aerogel with a novel non-particulate structure

Aerogels derived from pre-polymerized vinyl trimethoxy silane (VTMS) precursor with nano-size particles are known to exhibit outstanding mechanical and insulation properties. However, the density reduction has been limited by the poor connectivity. This paper presents an innovative technology to generate a new class of VTMS-based hybrid silica aerogels that possess outstanding non-particulate, reticulated structure and superior properties. This technology relies on spinodal decomposition instead of conventionally exploited binodal decomposition, which leads to a particulate structure. This new aerogel technology has significantly increased the void fraction of the pre-polymerized VTMS-based aerogel, which could not be achieved previously using binodal decomposition. The increased void fraction in the form of nano-pores with an average pore size of 21.75 nm nullifies the gas thermal conductivity effectively. Another consequence of the non-particulate structure is decreased processing time by removing the aging step. These improvements are due to the non-particulate structure's increased connectivity produced by spinodal decomposition. This novel structure was then compared to a particulate counterpart aerogel of the same material derived from the conventional binodal decomposition of the pre-polymerized VTMS precursor. To further decrease the processing cost, a lower molecular-weight polymeric precursor was synthesized under milder polymerization conditions. The effects of the polymeric precursor's molecular weight on the mechanical and thermal properties of the aerogel created via spinodal decomposition were also investigated.