Langmuir, Vol.20, No.8, 3416-3423, 2004
Structure of hybrid colloid-polymer xerogels
Crack-free monolithic gels were prepared from different mixtures of colloidal silica with a sol solution containing tetraethoxysilane, under powerful ultrasonic agitation (sonosol). Recently, information on the structure of these gels, inferred from N-2 adsorption and mercury intrusion porosimetry, was presented. In the present paper, these data were used to construct structural models of the gels using Monte Carlo calculations on the basis of random close packing (RPC) premises. In addition, the structure of gels under study was investigated by transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The material can be described as a composite in which the sonogel is the matrix and the colloid particles the reinforcing phase. For low colloid content, the colloid forms discrete clusters, and the main structural characteristic of sonogels, i.e., a network of uniformly sized particles of similar to3-4-nm radius, remains unmodified. However, for high colloid silica content, a multimode distribution appears, the structure is discontinuous, and only colloid aggregates larger than 100 nm are observed. For medium colloid content, aggregates of similar to50-100 nm can be seen, but the sonogel structure extends throughout the whole material. By the processing method and election of a suitable precursor concentration, it is possible to design the dcomposite for specific purposes.