Characterization of the microstructures of copper-based aerogels on the sol–gel process

• DOI: 10.1007/s10971-014-3451-0
• Publication Date: 2014-07-25T09:12:15Z
• Authors: Yutie Bi; Liping He; Yong Zhang; Shuaijie He; Hongbo Ren; Lin Zhang
• Keywords: Copper oxide; Polyacrylic acid; Characterization; Nanometre

In this thesis, we will elaborate on the sol–gel process during the preparation of monolithic copper-based aerogel. The microstructure of the copper-based aerogel appears to be various due to the different amounts of raw materials, such as polyacrylic acid, propene oxide, deionized water (H2O) and copper(II) chloride (CuCl2) in the sol–gel process. The proper molar ratios between these reactants play a crucial factor in mediating the morphology of the aerogel. The aerogels are characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller methods. The combined results indicate that the copper-based aerogel shows a typical three-dimensional porous structure with a large surface areas about 568 m2/g, and the skeleton structure of the aerogel is composed of a large number of primary particles with the size about a few nanometers.