Preparation of Marshmallow-like Macroporous Silicone Monoliths in Simple Surfactant-free Aqueous Systems and Their Application to Flexible Thermal Insulation Materials

16 March 2021, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Hydrophobic silicone macroporous materials prepared in an aqueous solution by the sol–gel method have been considered for various applications such as oil/water separation media, heat insulators, and liquid nitrogen adsorbents. In the conventional preparation process, surfactants are used to suppress phase separation to obtain a uniform bulk material. However, a large amount of solvent and time are required to remove them before drying, which hinders industrial-scale synthesis. By copolymerizing tetra-, tri-, and bifunctional organosilicon alkoxides in an aqueous acetic acid–urea solution, flexible macroporous silicone monoliths were successfully obtained, which recover their original shape even after 80 % uniaxial compression and large bending. The macroporous materials showed water repellency and heat resistance characteristic of silicone, and the thermal conductivity ~0.035 W m−1 K−1 did not increase even after 60 % uniaxial compression. Those silicone monoliths fabricated by a simple and highly reproducible green process are expected to be used widely.

Keywords

sol-gel synthesis
macroporous materials
monoliths
silicone
thermal insulation

Supplementary materials

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