Kinetics of densification of porous silica gels: a structural and textural study

The present work is devoted to the structural analysis of silica xerogel samples containing controlled pore sizes ranging from 25 to 270 Å. It focuses on the kinetics of densification processes. Porous xerogels were treated in air at the fixed temperature of 1050 °C for periods varying from 10 min to 3 h and were allowed to cool down in open air. They were characterized by density and nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, as well as by...