Synthesis of Novolac-silica Hybrid Aerogel by Modified Sol-gel Polymerization in Solvent-saturated Vapor Atmosphere

In the present paper a novel method based on modified sol-gel polymerization is employed for synthesis of highly porous novolac-silica hybrid aerogels. This method removes the need for supercritical drying and yields the hybrid aerogels with reduced drying shrinkage in comparison with conventional sol-gel process. The resultant hybrid aerogels show a nanostructured hybrid network with high porosity (above 80%) and low density (below 0.25 g/cm3). The chemical and structural characterization of the prepared hybrid aerogels was performed by FTIR and SEM analysis, respectively