Design and preparation of novel Y2O3-SiO2 composite aerogels for high-temperature thermal insulators

• Published in: Journal of non-crystalline solids 2023-04, Vol.605, p.122177, Article 122177
• Main Authors: Ren, Yuhan, Zhang, Biao, Ye, Jian, Zhang, Haoqian, Zhong, Zhaoxin, Wang, Yang, Ye, Feng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerogels; High-temperature thermal insulators; Y-Si molar ratios; Y2O3-SiO2
• ISSN: 0022-3093; 1873-4812
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2023.122177

•A novel Y2O3-SiO2 composite aerogel was designed and prepared.•The BET surface area and pore volume of sample Y2S1 reached 291.04 m2/g and 0.50 cm3/g.•Sample MF-Y2S1 has a low thermal conductivity of 0.109 W/(m⋅K) at 300 °C. This study successfully prepared a series of novel Y2O3-SiO2 composite aerogels using sol-gel methods. The high-temperature calcined SiO2-poor aerogels exhibit excellent high-temperature thermal stability in terms of shrinkage, porosity, and BET surface area maintenance. SiO2-rich aerogels exhibit more pronounced mesoporous material properties, the BET surface area and pore volume of sample Y2S1 reached 291.04 m2/g and 0.50 cm3/g, an increase of 278.71% and 297.78% over the pure Y2O3 aerogel, respectively. In addition, compared with untreated mullite fiber, the thermal conductivity of the mullite fiber after impregnation with Y2O3-SiO2 composite aerogels decreased by 35.32–45.77% at 300 °C, which is similar to the performance of impregnation with Al2O3-SiO2 composite aerogel (38.31%). Moreover, the Y2O3-SiO2 composite aerogel with a high BET surface area may have potential applications in the field of luminescent materials such as phosphors due to the intrinsic electronic structure of the rare-earth yttrium and its fantastic optical properties.