Synthetic Control of Molecular Structure in Organic Aerogels

Abstract

ABSTRACTOrganic aerogels have been formed from the aqueous, sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol with formaldehyde. These materials are transparent and have continuous porosity with cell/pore sizes of less than 1000 Å. Their microstructure is composed of interconnected colloidal-like particles with diameters of 30-200 Å. The particle size, cell size, surface area, and density of the aerogels are predominantly controlled by the catalyst concentration used in gel preparation.