Silica based aerogel production and characterization from cast sand and waste casting sand

In this study, instead of the commercial silica-based chemicals required for the production of silica-based aerogel, silica-based aerogel powder was produced from casting sand (DK) and waste casting sand (ADK) used in the casting industry using the sol-gel method under atmospheric drying conditions. KOH (MERCK 56.11 g/mol) and NaOH (MERCK 40 g/mol) as base source, HCl (ISOLAB 37%) and H2SO4 (ISOLAB 95-97%) as acid sources, Ethanol (ISOLAB 99.9%) as silylation agents, TEOS (ALDRICH 99.0%), N-Heptane (ISOLAB 99.0%) were used. The characterizations of the silica based aerogel powders dried under atmospheric conditions were carried out using FTIR, XRD, SEM, FESEM-EDS DTA / TG devices.