Preparation and Characterization of Spherical Polyimide Aerogel Microparticles

In the study described here, novel, polyimide (PI)-based spherical aerogelmicroparticles are fabricated. The aerogel microparticles proposed in this study have an advantage over film-shaped aerogels because the microparticles can be easily used for thermal insulation, drug release, and catalyst support. By using only a PI polymer as the raw material for the proposed PI aerogel microparticles, the problems associated with reinforcing conventional silica aerogels, such as inferior thermal resistance or incorporation with silica aerogel, are circumvented. The porosity of PI aerogel microparticles was determined to be 80% and specific surface area was determined as 103 m(2) g(-1). The pore sizes measured using mercury intrusion porosimetry are between 4 and 100 nm, with a representative pore size of 15 nm.