Micromechanical properties of carbon–silica aerogel composites

Materials’ endurance to mechanical stress is desirable from a technological point of view. In particular, in the case of silica aerogels, an improvement of the material elasticity is needed for some applications. Carbon–silica aerogel composites have been obtained and their mechanical properties, Young’s modulus, elastic parameter and hardness, have been evaluated with a dynamical, non-destructive microindentation technique. Large changes are found in Young’s modulus when only a small amount of carbon is added. This is clearly shown in the shape of the indentation curves as well as in the increase of the elastic parameter value, which evaluates the percentage of elasticity versus plasticity. Young’s modulus values obtained for carbon–silica aerogels show a similar variation with the carbon mass fraction to that predicted by a commonly used model for composite materials. The measured hardness values corresponding to the total elastoplastic deformation do not show such a prominent dependency on the carbon mass fraction as the elastic parameter and Young’s modulus do and they are similar to those measured for the pure-silica aerogel. Received: 18 May 2001 / Accepted: 30 July 2001 / Published online: 30 October 2001