Preparation & characterization of CUO/SIO₂ nanocomposite aerogel

Abstract

CuO/SiO₂ nanocomposite aerogels were prepared by using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as Si source, and aqueous solution of CuO as the precursors via sol-gel process and special drying techniques must be applied to replace the pore liquid with air while maintaining the solid network. During the preparation, Cu(OAc)₂ were mixed with distilled water until it dissolved completely. Homogeneous silica sol was prepared by mixing TEOS, H2O and ethanol with a mole ratio 1: 4: 8 respectively at temperature 50 0C for ½ hour. The aqueous solution of Cu(OAc)₂ and silica sol were combine with the parameter involved is (TEOS: Cu(OAc)₂ = 4: 1/0.5/2) mole ratio, and by dropwise addition of acetic acid and aqua ammonia, the composite wet gels were obtained. The wet gels were exchanged with ethanol two times and were dried with ambient drying. After that, the dry gel were crushed by mortar and filtered to have fine powder form. The experimental step was repeated by using the secondary reaction with copper chloride (CuCl₂) as a precursor and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as catalyst. The nanocomposite aerogel were analyze by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX) to study the morphology and phase analysis, Xray Diffraction (XRD) were used as to characterized the composition and microstructure of nanocomposite aerogel and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) shows functional group of nanocomposite aerogel.