• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.485-494
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• 1996

Silica Aerogels with the density and porosity of 0.1g/cm3 and 96% were synthesized by two different supercri-tical drying processes (i.e additional solvent and intial pressure methods) Isoptopanol was chosen as sol-gel and supercritical drying solvents in order to synthesize aerogels at the lower temperature and pressure because the critical values of isopropanol are lower than those of methanol and ethanol commonly used. The P-V-T relationship of isopropanol was experimentally described for optimizing supercritical drying conditions such as the amount of extra solvent and supercritical drying temperature and pressure. In the addional solvent method monolithic and transparent aerogels were obtained by supercritical drying at 25$0^{\circ}C$ and 900 psing after 40% of the reactor volume was filled with isopropanol. Crack-free aerogels were synthesized at 25$0^{\circ}C$ and 1100~1200 psig by the initial pressure method with an intial nitrogen gas pressure of 400 psig and the isopropanol amount of 5% of the reactor volume.