title: Influence of drying procedure on the mesoporosity and surface fractal dimensions of silica xerogels prepared with different agitation methods.
abstract: Silica xerogels were prepared by thermal drying wet gels in an electric oven (70 degrees C) after certain duration of ambient drying, and the relevant effect is investigated on the mesopore structures and surface fractal dimensions of the resultant xerogels. The silica gels were derived from a hydrochloric acid-catalyzed TEOS (tetraethylorthaosilicate) system, and both magnetic stirring and ultrasonic vibration were adopted during sol preparation. The percentage mesoporosity and surface fractal dimensions are evaluated using image analysis methods, based on FE-SEM (field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy) images. The results show that the mesoporosity of the resultant xerogels decreases with the duration of ambient drying for samples prepared using magnetic stirring and low-intensity ultrasonic vibration, while samples subjected to high-intensity ultrasound show a somewhat reverse trend. Samples prepared with magnetic stirring have almost constant surface fractal dimensions (nearly 3), irrespective of the ambient drying before thermal drying. The surface fractal dimensions of samples prepared using ultrasound increase with the duration of ambient drying.
authors.affiliation: Multi-Phase Reaction Laboratory, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, People's Republic of China. w.l.huang@263.net
authors.forename: Wen Lai
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Shi Hua
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Kai Ming
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Shou Ren
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Zhang Fu
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Yuan