Effect of Titanium Dioxide Particles on the Thermal Stability of Silica Aerogels

Silica aerogels exhibit a unique nanostructure with low thermal conductivity and low density, making them attractive materials for thermal isolation under extreme conditions. The TiO₂ particle is one of the common industrial additives used to reduce the thermal radiation of aerogel composites under high-temperature environments, but its influence on thermal resistance is almost unknown. Herein, we report the effect of TiO₂ nanoparticles with different crystal phases and different sizes on the thermal stability of silica aerogel composites. By adding TiO₂ nanoparticles, the aerogel can significantly resist collapse at high temperatures (up to 1000 °C). And compared with the rutile phase TiO₂, the anatase phase TiO₂ shows much higher temperature resistance performance, with shrinkage of only one-sixth of the rutile phase after 800 °C treatment. Interestingly, energy-dispersive spectrometer mapping results show that after 800 °C treatment, silica nanoparticles (NPs) are squeezed out in between anatase TiO₂ particles, which resists the coarsening of silica NPs and ultimately enhances the stability of aerogel composites. The optimal anatase phase TiO₂-doped silica aerogel demonstrates the integrated properties of crack-free morphology (2.84% shrinkage), low thermal conductivity (29.30 mW/(m·K)) and low density (149.4 mg/cm³) after 800 °C treatment. This study may provide new insights for developing oxide-doped silica aerogels with both high-temperature resistance and low thermal radiation.