Fe2O3/SiO2 composite aerogels powders for high-temperature thermal insulation based on EDTA chelated aqueous precursor
摘要
SiO2 aerogel is a typical thermal insulation material suitable for varied high temperature industrial applications. However, its radiative transparency seriously hampers its application scenario. Herein, we integrated infrared (IR) opacified Fe2O3 nanoparticles into silica aerogel system and developed a Fe2O3/SiO2 composite aerogel (FSA) by using industrial water glass and ambient pressure drying process. Especially, we chelated Fe3+ with disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic (EDTA-2Na) to avoid the loss of Fe3+ in the gelling, solvent-exchanging and hydrophobic modification processes. FSA powders with 3–11% concentration exhibited an amorphous structure, high porosity with small nanopores (11–12 nm). The EDS analysis confirmed the presence of Fe in the aerogel samples. The high-temperature thermal insulation properties of the FSA powders were enhanced compared with the pure SiO2 aerogel powders, yielding a cold surface temperature of 456 ℃ after heating at 600 ℃ for 30 min, 26 ℃ lower than pure SiO2 aerogel. The EDTA-2Na chelating agent improved the dispersion of Fe3+ and further reduced the temperature by 6 ℃, demonstrating its positive effect on the insulation performance.