Silica aerogels are among the most easily produced types of aerogels due to the availability of required materials, the cheapness of required materials such as carbon dioxide, ethanol, and tetraethyl orthosilicate, and the relatively simple sol-gel chemistry. Using silica aerogels as skeletons, nanomaterials were easily and effectively structured in three dimensions. The aerogels were doped with nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, tungsten disulfide, and molybdenum disulfide by simply dispersing the nanomaterials in ethanol. The resulting aerogels have properties that are tunable with dopant material and concentration. The doped silica aerogels offer an easy, safe, and affordable alternative to pure carbon aerogels that show catalytic properties.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Baum, Evan Allington
• Richards, Corey Allan

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-032516-135049

Advisor

• Panchapakesan, Balaji

Year

• 2016

Sponsor

• Balaji Panchapakesan

Date created

• 2016-03-25

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright