Dynamic scaling properties of TeO2-based gels

Homogeneous, transparent, and mechanically rigid gels have been successfully synthesized in the tellurium isopropoxide-isopropanol-citric acid and water system. The sol to gel transition and the gels microstructure have been studied by using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments. For any value of the two key synthesis parameters, which are the citric acid ratio and the alkoxide concentration, very small Te-rich elementary particles, about 1-1.5 nm in radius, form immediately when the water is added, leading to colloidal sols. During gelation, these elementary particles stick progressively together to build up fractal aggregates by a pure hierarchical aggregation process which has been identified as a reaction-limited cluster aggregation (RLCA) mechanism. The SAXS curve analysis, based on scaling concepts, shows that the gelling network exhibits a time and length scale invariant structure factor characterized by self-similarity. This self-similarity is also displayed for a wide range of chemical compositions and the gel microstructures only differ in their fractal aggregate size according to the tellurium isopropoxide concentration as well as the citric acid ratio.