A New Nanoporous Aramid Fiber Aerogel

In this study, a new organic aerogel. was prepared through a straightforward method. Para-aramid fiber used as the precursor was dissolved in the solution of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) / tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF), then regenerated in the acetone and dried by the supercritical CO2 to obtain the final aerogel. The aerogel was characterized by the density measurement, the SEM observation, and the BET method. The results show that the as-prepared aerogel, which was regenerated and dried in the optimal condition, has regular bundle of molecular chain with the width about 20 nm. In this structure, there are lots of nanopores with the average pore size of 11.535 nm that belongs to mesoporous, and with the peak of the pore size distribution of 0.77 nm that belongs to micropore. Besides, the nanopores are open-pores cross-linked each other forming the 3D-network. Meanwhile, the sample has large specific surface area of 510 g / m(3) and density is as low as 0.083 g / cm(3) (up to 94.3% of porosity).