Highly Mixed ZrO2/SiO2 Hybrid Aerogel Deriving from Freely Tangled Weakly Branched Primary Clusters Enables Improved Thermal Stability and Excellent Thermal Insulating Performance.

In compared with single component aerogel, hybrid aerogel with multi-components possessing enhanced properties, especially high thermal stabilities which are our concerns in this paper, are the promised materials in various applications. However, how the mixing between variable components within hybrid aerogel affects their properties still not very clear and needs more research efforts. In the present research, we chose a ZrO₂/SiO₂ hybrid aerogel as represent to study their mixing and the resulted thermal stabilities. We designed a series of ZrO₂/SiO₂ hybrid aerogels with variable ZrO₂/SiO₂ ratio deriving from tailored sol-gel parameters, and then studied their shrinkages, nanopore collapses and crystallization behaviors upon heat-treatment.