Research has shown that including
up to 5 percent w/w carbon nanofibers
in a silica backbone of polymer crosslinked
aerogels improves its strength,
tripling compressive modulus and
increasing tensile stress-at-break fivefold
with no increase in density or
decrease in porosity. In addition, the
initial silica hydrogels, which are produced
as a first step in manufacturing
the aerogels, can be quite fragile and
difficult to handle before cross-linking.
The addition of the carbon nanofiber
also improves the strength of the initial
hydrogels before cross-linking, improving
the manufacturing process. This
can also be extended to other oxide
aerogels, such as alumina or aluminosilicates,
and other nanofiber types, such
as silicon carbide.