Preparation and characterization of silica aerogel-ZIF-8 hybrid materials

A novel silica aerogels hybrid material with two different proportions of Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8) is prepared using a conventional sol-gel process. The ZIF-8 has tunable pores and functionalities, and usually exhibit high surface areas. The synthesized materials are denoted as SA-ZIF-8(x), were characterized by XRD, nitrogen sorption analysis, Elemental analysis and HR-TEM techniques. The textural investigations reveal that hybrid materials with a wide variation in their pore characteristics can be synthesized by varying ZIF-8 content in the sol. The BET surface area was found to be in the range of 563-540 m2 g−1. The potential applications of silica aerogels (SA) ZIF-8 hybrid materials covers a wide range of fields are related to pore sizes and structures.