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Nano-sized trinitrotoluene (TNT) material restrained in silica gel has been prepared by using the sol-gel process to study the effect of varying porosity in gel on the sensitivity of TNT. The TNT content in the gel has been varied from 60 to 90 wt % (at fixed acetone/tetramethoxysilane ratio of 50). Also, for a fixed TNT content of 75 wt %, the pore structure in the gel has been varied by changing the ratio of silica gel precursor to the solvent. The resultant TNT–silica gel composites have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, small angle X-ray scattering and surface area analysis techniques. Impact sensitivity studies were carried out using Fall Hammer Impact Test. The results showed that the sensitivity of nanostructured explosives prepared by sol-gel process can be tailored precisely by controlling the process parameters.

In the present paper, the experimental results on some physical properties of silica aerogels modified by four different drying control chemical additives (DCCAs): (i) oxalic acid (OXA), (ii) glycerol (GLY), (iii) N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and (iv) formamide (FA) are reported. The molar ratio of tetramethoxysilane (TMOS), methanol (MeOH), water (H2O) and ammonia (NH4OH) was fixed at 1 : 12 : 4 : 3.6 × 10−3 respectively, throughout our experiments, and the DCCA/TMOS molar ratio was varied accordingly. The DCCA/TMOS molar ratio at around 0.4 was found to be the limiting value for almost all the modified aerogels, above which the cracking probability of the aerogels increased drastically. Further, the DCCA modified aerogels were characterized by optical transmittance and porosity measurements. Physical properties such as bulk density, volume shrinkage and specific surface area were also determined for all the modified aerogels. The pore size distribution (PSD) was found to shift towards smaller pore radii for acidic (OXA) DCCA and larger pore radii for basic (FA, DMF) DCCAs. The results have been supported by particle and pore sizes observed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and BET analysis.

In the present paper, the experimental results on the influence of catalyst (citric acid) concentration on the physical properties of TEOS silica aerogels, are reported. The aerogels have been prepared by hydrolysis and polycondensation of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) using citric acid (CTA) as a new catalyst followed by supercritical drying in an autoclave. In order to obtain the best quality silica aerogels in terms of monolithy, high transparency, low density, large surface area and high porosity with uniform pore size distribution, the catalyst concentrations were varied from 0.0005 M to 0.1 M by keeping the molar ratio of TEOS : EtOH : H2O constant at 1 : 5 : 7, respectively. It has been found that the lower (<0.001) CTA concentration resulted in low density, smaller surface area but opaque aerogels whereas higher (>0.005 M) CTA concentration resulted in high density, large surface area, highly transparent but cracked aerogels. On the other hand, medium (between 0.001 and 0.005 M) CTA concentration resulted in monolithic, low density, large surface area and highly transparent silica aerogels. The pore size distribution (PSD) for higher (0.1 M) and lower (0.0005) CTA concentrations shifted towards smaller and larger pore radii respectively, whereas for medium (0.001 M) CTA concentration, the PSD is narrow and uniform, which reduces the differential pressure during supercritical solvent extraction leading to monolithic silica aerogels. These results have been supported and discussed by considering the particle and pore sizes observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The surface area was measured by BET analysis.