Synthesis of paramagnetic iron incorporated silica aerogels by ambient pressure drying

The iron incorporated silica aerogels were prepared under ambient pressure drying through a two-step sol-gel route by using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and ferric nitrate as co-precursors, and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDZ) as a surface modification reagent. Compared with the silica aerogels modified by trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) or HMDZ, the iron incorporated silica aerogels exhibited good integrity, paramagnetic behavior, and highly hydrophobicity which could be maintained up to 650 °C. However, the introduction of iron into silica aerogels resulted in more apparent volume shrinkage, higher density, lower porosity, and smaller pore diameter. It was found that a large amount of water was retained in the silica network, accordingly, the water containing iron oxides (Fe–OH) were more readily formed than water free iron oxides (Fe–O), which adversely affected the physical properties of iron incorporated silica aerogels.