Aerogel Composites Produced from Silica and Recycled Rubber Sols for Thermal Insulation

oleh: Alyne Lamy-Mendes, Ana Dora Rodrigues Pontinha, Paulo Santos, Luísa Durães

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-11-01

Deskripsi

Hydrophobic rubber-silica aerogel panels (21.5 × 21.5 × 1.6 cm<sup>3</sup>) were fabricated from silica and rubber sols and reinforced with several fiber types (recycled tire textile fibers, polyester blanket, silica felt, glass wool). A recycled rubber sol was prepared using peracetic acid and incorporated for the first time in TEOS-based sol-gel chemistry. The composites exhibited good thermal stability up to 400 °C and very low thermal conductivity, in the superinsulation range when using polyester fibers (16.4 ± 1.0 mW·m<sup>−1</sup>·K<sup>−1</sup>), and of 20–30 mW·m<sup>−1</sup>·K<sup>−1</sup> for the remaining fibers. They could also endure cyclic compression loads with near full recovery, thus showing very promising properties for insulation of buildings.