The Department of Functional Materials and Catalysis invites to a guest lecture by Prof. Kazuki Nakanishi, Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability, Nagoya University, Japan:

Title: "Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Aerogel Monoliths -Structural optimization toward improved resilience"

Aerogels have a long history and will be familiar to most sol-gel researchers. Although their peculiar properties such as high visible-light transmittance and superb thermal insulation are well recognized, the fragile nature arising from their low-density tenuous network is yet to be improved. In 2007, monolithic aerogels that can be fabricated through ambient pressure (evaporation) drying were invented using a polymethylsilsesquioxane, PMSQ, composition where a trifunctional alkoxysilane was used as a precursor in the co-presence of surfactant. The resultant aerogel monolith, however, was flexible only against compressive stress, and further improvement was required to make them suitable for practical uses such as window applications. Since then, various efforts have been made to improve mechanical strength, especially against bending and tensile stresses. Among them, “Double cross-links”, comprising the mixed crosslinking of siloxane and hydrocarbon chains, has been shown to be effective in achieving good bending strength and appreciable transmittance/thermal insulation properties.