PROCESSING OF SILICA XEROGELS USING SONOCATALYSIS AND AN ADDITIVE

Drying control chemical additives (DCCA) can be used to obtain monolithic glasses. Processing steps are unclear or not well known. This work studies the processing of xerogels prepared with formamide as an additive, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and acid water in a molar ratio of 7:1:10, respectively, with high power ultrasound. In order to calculate the evolution of the main ultrastructural parameters, the entire processing has been followed by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms.