Elastic and plastic mechanical properties of nanoparticle-based silica aerogels and xerogels

This paper reports and analyzes, for the first time, the effective Young's modulus and hardness of nanoparticle-based silica aerogels and xerogels with porosity ranging from 46 to 81%. Pure silica aerogel and xerogel monoliths were synthesized by (i) gelation of aqueous suspensions of silica nanoparticles on omniphobic substrates (PTFE or perfluorocarbon liquids), (ii) aging, (iii) drying at ambient temperature and pressure, and (iv) calcination. The aging and calcination conditions were varied to elucidate their effect on the mechanical properties of the monoliths. Both the effective Young's modulus and the hardness of the mesoporous slabs were measured by nanoindentation and were found to obey a power law as a function of the effective density. No effect of the synthetic conditions or structural parameters other than porosity were observed. Interestingly, the effective hardness was linearly proportional to the effective Young's modulus. The elastic properties of the present nanoparticle-based materials were compared with those of the molecular precursor-based silica aerogels and xerogels reported in the literature. A single relationship was proposed that can be used to estimate the effective Young's modulus of nanoparticle-based and molecular precursor-based silica aerogels and xerogels with porosity between 0 and 98% and Young's modulus between ∼10−4 and 70 GPa. Deposition of an alumina coating was also demonstrated as a way to increase the hardness of these mesoporous monoliths by a factor 2–13 for porosity of 40–73%. The experimental results and the accompanying analysis broaden the understanding of structure-property relationships in mesoporous silica and will help in the design and fabrication of mesoporous silica components.