Production, development and industrial use of new generation silica and graphene aerogels

Today, with the development of technology, the production of advanced technological materials has accelerated. Aerogels, one of the advanced technological materials, have low thermal conductivity, high porosity and surface area and are light solid materials. In order to reduce the fragile structure of aerogels, which is the biggest disadvantage of aerogels, composite studies are carried out with different materials. Within the scope of this thesis, the production of silica (SA) and graphene aerogels (GA) was discussed and important findings were obtained by obtaining kevlar fabric reinforced silica and graphene aerogels for the development of these aerogels, Si/Zr/B, Si and polymeric ceramic aerogels for the production of flexible materials resistant to high temperatures, and PtFe3O4@GA and PtFe3O4 catalysts to be used in methanol oxidation for energy production. With the findings obtained, it was observed by thermal camera analysis that Si/Zr/B and Si ceramic aerogels were the material resistant to the highest temperature with 1200°C. It was observed that kevlar reinforcement of aerogels improved the brittleness of aerogels and polymeric ceramic aerogels showed the highest elastic properties. In addition, in the electrochemical analyses in the methanol oxidation study, 8.72 times higher electro-catalytic activity was observed with the addition of GA to the structure and the results were found to be compatible. The research findings show that aerogels offer high potential for energy conservation and energy generation, and the suggestions obtained for their development are listed within the scope of the study.