Radiation Synthesis of Carbon/Aluminum/Silica Aerogel Nanoporous Structure Derived from Polyacrylamide Hydrogel for High Temperature and Oil Removal Applications

Aerogel is a high-performance thermal resistance materialdesiredfor high-temperature applications like dye-sensitized solar cells,batteries, and fuel cells. To increase the energy efficiency of batteries,an aerogel is required to reduce the energy loss arising from theexothermal reaction. This paper synthesized a different compositionof inorganic-organic hybrid material by growing the silicaaerogel inside a polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel. The hybrid PaaS/silicaaerogel was synthesized using different irradiation doses of gammarays (10-60 kGy) and different solid contents of PAAm (6.25,9.37, 12.5, and 30 wt %). Here, PAAm is used as an aerogel formationtemplate and carbon precursor after the carbonization process at atemperature of (150, 350, and 1100 degrees C). The hybrid PAAm/silicaaerogel was converted into aluminum/silicate aerogels after soakingin a solution of AlCl3. Then, the carbonization processtakes place at a temperature of (150, 350, and 1100 degrees C) for 2 hto provide C/Al/Si aerogels with a density of around 0.18-0.040 gm/cm(3) and porosity of 84-95%. The hybrid C/Al/Si aerogelspresented interconnected networks of porous structures with differentpore sizes depending on the carbon and PAAm contents. The sample witha solid content of 30% PAAm in the C/Al/Si aerogel was composed ofinterconnected fibrils whose diameter was about 50 mu m. The structureafter carbonization at 350 and 1100 degrees C was a condensed openingporous 3D network structure. This sample gives the optimum thermalresistance and a very low thermal conductivity of 0.073 (w/m center dot k)at low carbon content (2.71% at temperature 1100 degrees C) and high v (pore) (95%) compared with carbon content 42.38%and v (pore) (93%) which give 0.102 (w/m center dot k).This is because at 1100 degrees C, the carbon atoms evolve to leavean area between Al/Si aerogel particles, increasing the pore size.Furthermore, the Al/Si aerogel had excellent removal ability for variousoil samples.