Synthesis of silica aerogel blanket by ambient drying method using water glass based precursor and glass wool modified by alumina sol

Silica aerogel blankets have been synthesized by ambient drying technique using cheap water glass as the silica source and glass wool modified by alumina sol. One step solvent exchange and surface modification were simultaneously conducted by immersing the wet hydrogel blanket in EtOH/TMCS/hexane solution. The synthesized silica aerogel blanket was light with the density of 0.143-0.104 g/cm(3) and 89.4-95% porosity. The microstructure of silica aerogel blanket exhibits a porous structure consisting of glass fibers of diameter similar to 2.5 mu m interconnected with solid silica clusters (5-20 mu m). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.