C. Marliere et al., Very large-scale structures in sintered silica aerogels as evidenced by atomic force microscopy and ultra-small angle X-ray scattering experiments, J NON-CRYST, 285(1-3), 2001, pp. 148-153
During the last few years the bulk structure of silica aerogels has been ex
tensively studied mainly by scattering techniques (neutrons, X-rays, light)
. It has been shown that small silica particles aggregate to constitute a f
ractal network. Its spatial extension and fractal dimension are strongly de
pendent on the synthesis conditions (e.g., pH of gelifying solutions). Thes
e typical lengths range from 1 to 10 nm. Ultra-small angle X-ray scattering
(USAXS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments have been carried ou
t on aerogels at different steps of densification. The results presented in
this payer reveal the existence of a spatial arrangement of the solid part
at a very large length scale. The evolution of this very large-scale struc
ture during the densification process has been studied and reveals a contra
ction of this macro-structure made of aggregates of clusters. (C) 2001 Else
vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.