The Effect of Drying on the Nanostructure of Sol-gel Solids

It is demonstrated that different pore structures and morphologies in nanometer scales may be obtained using different strategies of drying of wet gels produced by the sol-gel method. The low temperature drying strategy (LTD), using supercritical carbon dioxide, gives similar nanopore structure as the high temperature supercritical drying (HTD) yet different morphology. Both methods lead to suppression of small mesopores. In the LTD method this effect can be minimized by replacement of the original interstitial liquid of alcogel by that exhibiting lower surface tension.