Radiation Synthesis of Carbon/Aluminum/Silica Aerogel Nanoporous Structure Derived from Polyacrylamide Hydrogel for High Temperature and Oil Removal Applications

Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy; Ghada Bassioni; Ahmed Zaher; H Abd El-Wahab; Norhan Nady; Amira El-Sayed; Amr Osman; Nour El-Din Ahmed Abd El-Sattar

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c07335

Radiation Synthesis of Carbon/Aluminum/Silica Aerogel Nanoporous Structure Derived from Polyacrylamide Hydrogel for High Temperature and Oil Removal Applications

ACS Omega. 2023 May 30;8(23):20283-20292. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07335. eCollection 2023 Jun 13.

Authors

Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy¹, Ghada Bassioni², Ahmed Zaher³, H Abd El-Wahab⁴, Norhan Nady⁵, Amira El-Sayed⁶, Amr Osman⁶, Nour El-Din Ahmed Abd El-Sattar⁶

Affiliations

¹ Radiation Research of Polymer Chemistry Department, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology (NCRRT), Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA), P.O. Box 8029, Cairo 4441501, Egypt.
² Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, Egypt.
³ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, El-Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Chemistry Faculty of Science, Al-Azher University, P.O. Box 11754, Nasr City, Cairo 387130, Egypt.
⁵ Polymeric Materials Research Department, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-City), Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria 21934, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11517, Egypt.

Abstract

Aerogel is a high-performance thermal resistance material desired for high-temperature applications like dye-sensitized solar cells, batteries, and fuel cells. To increase the energy efficiency of batteries, an aerogel is required to reduce the energy loss arising from the exothermal reaction. This paper synthesized a different composition of inorganic-organic hybrid material by growing the silica aerogel inside a polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel. The hybrid PaaS/silica aerogel was synthesized using different irradiation doses of gamma rays (10-60 kGy) and different solid contents of PAAm (6.25, 9.37, 12.5, and 30 wt %). Here, PAAm is used as an aerogel formation template and carbon precursor after the carbonization process at a temperature of (150, 350, and 1100 °C). The hybrid PAAm/silica aerogel was converted into aluminum/silicate aerogels after soaking in a solution of AlCl₃. Then, the carbonization process takes place at a temperature of (150, 350, and 1100 °C) for 2 h to provide C/Al/Si aerogels with a density of around 0.18-0.040 gm/cm³ and porosity of 84-95%. The hybrid C/Al/Si aerogels presented interconnected networks of porous structures with different pore sizes depending on the carbon and PAAm contents. The sample with a solid content of 30% PAAm in the C/Al/Si aerogel was composed of interconnected fibrils whose diameter was about 50 μm. The structure after carbonization at 350 and 1100 °C was a condensed opening porous 3D network structure. This sample gives the optimum thermal resistance and a very low thermal conductivity of 0.073 (w/m·k) at low carbon content (2.71% at temperature 1100 °C) and high v_pore (95%) compared with carbon content 42.38% and v_pore (93%) which give 0.102 (w/m·k). This is because at 1100 °C, the carbon atoms evolve to leave an area between Al/Si aerogel particles, increasing the pore size. Furthermore, the Al/Si aerogel had excellent removal ability for various oil samples.