Preparation and characterization of organic-inorganic hybrid ZrOC/PF aerogel used as high-temperature insulator

Organic-inorganic hybrid ZrOC/PF aerogel composite is successfully prepared via one sol-gel polymerization process, using PF and ZrOC sols as precursor, respectively. SEM, BET, FT-IR, and XPS measurements are used to investigate the effect of the mass ratio of ZrOC to PF on physical, microstructure, and thermal properties of the composite aerogels. Results show that the aerogels exhibit relative low density (0.258–0.332 g/cm³), relative high compressive strength (0.32–1.40 MPa), and low thermal conductivity (0.0466–0.0660 W/m·K). SEM images demonstrated that the particles are composed of the tangled clusters of the PF and ZrOC and the particle size ranges from a dozen nm to tens of nm, up to several microns. XPS results indicate that elements C, O, and Zr in the samples are based on C–C and Zr–O valences band binding, respectively. The ZrOC/PF aerogel with excellent physical property and potential high-temperature resistance may be used in aerospace in the near future.