Investigation of the Effect of Rice Husk Ash on the Structure and Thermal Stability of Novalac Aerogel

The effect of adding rice husk ash (RHA) as filler to the Novalac resin on the structure and thermal stability of Novalac aerogels was investigated. Rice husk ash is rich in Silica and can be produced from rice husk (RH) by appropriate combustion technique. After incinerating rice husk in a specified heating cycle, the ash was converted into powder and was added to novalac solution in 2-propanol and aerogels were prepared by sol-gel polymerization in solvent saturated vapor. Experiments resulted in lower density and shrinkage in the presence of RHA. XRF was used for analyzing RHA composition. SEM results were used for studying the structure of samples. Thermal stability of aerogels was investigated by DSC