The influence of the ammonia concentration and the water content on the water sorption behavior of ambient pressure dried silica xerogels

Abstract

Porous silica xerogels were synthesized within 10 h by a two-step sol–gel process under atmospheric conditions. In the first step, tetraethylorthosiloxane (TEOS) was hydrolyzed with water using sulfuric acid as a catalyst. In the second step, water and ammonia were added to the prehydrolyzed silica sol prior to the drying of the samples at 150 °C. The influence of the ammonia concentration and the water content on the physicochemical properties and the water sorption behavior of silica xerogels produced in the aforementioned way was investigated. The resulting silica xerogels were characterized by helium pycnometry, scanning electron microscopy, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, nitrogen sorption, and water sorption. It was shown that a higher ammonia concentration leads to an increased pore size of the silica xerogel which starts to adsorb water at a higher relative pressure. With an increased water content during gelation, the silica xerogel has a higher specific surface area and a higher water sorption capacity. Furthermore, silica xerogels can be tailored by a controlled addition of ammonia and water to have a higher water sorption capacity than the reference silica gel over the whole range of relative pressure. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]