Magazine Article

Manufacture of Regularly Shaped Sol-Gel Pellets

TBMG-48

08/01/2006

Abstract
Content

An extrusion batch process for manufacturing regularly shaped sol-gel pellets has been devised as an improved alternative to a spray process that yields irregularly shaped pellets. The aspect ratio of regularly shaped pellets can be controlled more easily, while regularly shaped pellets pack more efficiently. In the extrusion process, a wet gel is pushed out of a mold and chopped repetitively into short, cylindrical pieces as it emerges from the mold. The pieces are collected and can be either (1) dried at ambient pressure to xerogel, (2) solvent exchanged and dried under ambient pressure to ambigels, or (3) supercritically dried to aerogel. Advantageously, the extruded pellets can be dropped directly in a cross-linking bath, where they develop a conformal polymer coating around the skeletal framework of the wet gel via reaction with the cross linker. These pellets can be dried to mechanically robust X-Aerogel.

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Citation
"Manufacture of Regularly Shaped Sol-Gel Pellets," Mobility Engineering, August 1, 2006.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Aug 1, 2006
Product Code
TBMG-48
Content Type
Magazine Article
Language
English