Aerogel Step 3

Catching the critical point in autoclave.
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Science & Technology

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• aerogel

[pimbilibom]

For explosion danger: acetone under 50 bar pressure and 250°C temperature is pretty dangerous combination. Airglass factory exploded in 1984.

[CloseOne]

600W...very high temperatures...

This is Fermi?

[HaydenHatTrick]

@pimbilibom I think I know a few others with some nice equipment who may be interested in a hobby :P. Thank you for the link.

[pimbilibom]

@HaydenHatTrick hehe then you have very pro equipment! i learned to stir with one hand and poor with other same time. i think i should post another video of the trick... waterglass gives rather hazy gel. if you are so pro chemist you should maybe skip the waterglass and go stright to metal alkoxide process. There is tons of info available about it but you may start from here: solgel.com/educational/educfra­me.htm

i am glad to see someone picking up my experiment..

[HaydenHatTrick]

@pimbilibom nice, thanks... will a magnetic stirring rod stir it properly, or should it be more agitated? Also, the stirring rod wouldn't do anything to the fluid? (some people learn the hard way about making ferofluid with a stirring rod :P)

[pimbilibom]

@HaydenHatTrick The gel is easiest part! you can practice with sodium silicate (waterglass) and vinegar: dilute both 50/50% and mix silicate to vinegar by stirring constantly. if there appear white lumps then your stirring was poor and silicate added too fast. Filtering through rough filter helps to get rid of the white. You must do it fast though because it may gel before it gets through filter. After you have practiced enough with water solution you can jump to TEOS process.

[HaydenHatTrick]

@pimbilibom nice, thanks... in your vids I couldnt find how you made the original gel

[pimbilibom]

@HaydenHatTrick You must be absolutely sure that you have no moisture at all in the gel, autoclave and solvent you add. You have to prepare the gel properly. The trick is exchanging solvent gradually in the gel to prevent it cracking from osmotic shock. This is very tedious work and takes many days to weeks to accomplish. Once you have soaked gel in pure solvent many times, you are ready to dry it.

[HaydenHatTrick]

@pimbilibom yeah, and an autoclave has moisture in it... im just saying, if i were to repeat this experiment, should i make sure there is no water supply to the autoclave

[pimbilibom]

@HaydenHatTrick step1:sol-gel step2: solvent exchange (remove ALL water) to acetone step3: supercritical drying

[HaydenHatTrick]

obviously you wouldn't have any water running into that auto clave... (hot moisture being the whole point of them? is that correct or is there a step before the drying?

[Asumacoe]

Aerogeel, aerogeel.