| Effects of Ultrasonic Irradiation on Physical Properties of Silica/PEG Hybrids |
| Hwa-Young Jung, Ravindra K. Gupta, Sang-Ki Lee, Chin-Myung Whang |
| School of Materials Science and Engineering and Institute of the Advanced Materials, Inha University |
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| ABSTRACT |
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The effect of ultrasonic radiation is reported for silica-poly(ethylene glycol) system prepared without the solvent using sol-gel processing by varying various parameters such as ultrasonic irradiation time, PEG content and HCl/TEOS molar ratio. The property of sonogel is compared with classic gel which has been prepared with ethanol as a solvent by traditional sol-gel processing. SEM, BET, DTA-TGA, density and Vickers hardness measurements are carried out for analyzing the samples. The gelation time is found strongly dependent on radiation time, PEG content and pH value, and has been discussed on the basis of existing theories. The $SiO_2-10$ & 20 wt% PEG sonogel exhibited superior optical, physical and gel properties as compared to the classic gel, hence, found suitable for device applications. The ultrasonic radiation increased the density and surface area, and also reduced the pore size which is well supported by the shift in the peak of DTA curve. The DTA thermogram was found similar to that of pure silica gel. |
| Key words:
Inorganic-organic hybrid, Sol-gel process, Sonogel, Classic gel, Ultrasonic irradiation, $SiO_2-PEG$ |
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