Preparation of superhydrophobic and flexible polysiloxane aerogel

Abstract Silica aerogels, which consist of nano-particles and abundant nano-pores, have many outstanding properties. However, poor mechanical performances dramatically limit the practical applications of aerogel. Herein, we reported the preparation of novel superhydrophobic and flexible silica aerogel with several kinds of polysiloxane. The aerogel was formed with the polysiloxane and multimethoxy-POSS, the POSS was efficiently synthesized by thio-ene reaction and used as a crosslinking agent to strengthen the structure. The obtained data revealed all aerogels had the mesoporous structure (19–27 nm), high specific surface area (476.3–632.9 m2 g−1) and fine heat resistance. The different ratio of side groups on polysiloxane and the content of POSS led to the different mechanical properties, the ultimate compression strain was up to 50%. Moreover, the further oil-water separation application has also been demonstrated.