A novel starch-enhanced melamine-formaldehyde aerogel with low volume shrinkage and high toughness

A new hybrid aerogel with low volume shrinkage and high toughness was prepared by aqueous condensation of melamine, starch and formaldehyde and extracting the solvent from the wet gel with carbon dioxide under the supercritical condition. The sizes of the wet gel and aerogel were measured by vernier calipers and the volume shrinkage of the aerogel was as low as 1.8%. The results from BET and SEM indicated that the hybrid aerogel belonged to the mesoporous material, which showed a typical three-dimensional porous structure with a specific surface area about 366.2 m(2)/g and pore diameter about 12.9 nm. To study the mechanical properties of the hybrid aerogel, we measured the compressive stress as a function of strain and the hybrid aerogel demonstrated excellent elasticity and mechanical durability.