Development of new detector based on aerogel with fiber shape.

在以前的制备方法中，气凝胶透明膜被优化为折射率较低的1.010-1.030美元，当折射率大于1.030时，光学性能迅速退化。为了改善这种情况，在胶体形成中引入了一种新的溶剂二甲基甲酰胺(DMF)，在那里制备了醇凝胶。将DMF与甲醇混合，在此乙醇混合物中进行Sol-Gel步骤，用该方法得到的气凝胶块在400 nm波长下的透射率约为40 mm，而仅以甲醇为乙醇的气凝胶块的透射率约为23 mm。认为这一显著的改善是基于DMF液体通过测量气凝胶的内部孔隙率可以帮助形成更小的孔洞作为醇凝胶结构。我们在制备醇凝胶样品时改变了液体组分中的一些量，这可能影响了所得到的光学特性，以考察在溶胶-凝胶过程中使用的化学量对透射率的依赖关系。利用这种方法，我们成功地制备出了高透明度的样品。除此之外，还保留了疏水特性。因此，我们发现任何形状的气凝胶，包括纤维状的气凝胶，都可以通过水射流切割装置切割出来，在加工过程中，高压水通过小点注入到材料中。

In the previous production method, aerogel transparencies were optimized for lower refractive indices of $1.010\sim1.030$, and the optical properties were quickly degraded when the refractive index became bigger than 1.030. To improve this situation, a new solvent of di-methyl-formamide (DMF) was introduced in the colloidal formation, where alcogel was made. DMF was mixed with methanol, and the sol-gel step proceeded in this alcohol mixture The transmission length of the aerogel block obtained from this method was measured to be about 40mm at 400nm wave length, while ~23mm was achieved if only methanol was used as an alcohol solvent. It is considered that this remarkable improvement is based upon the fact that DMF liquid can help to form smaller pores as the alcogel structure from measuring the aerogel internal porosity.We varied some quantities in the liquid components when making alcogel samples, which may have affected the resulting optical characteristics to investigate the transmission dependence on the chemical quantities used in the sol-gel process. With this method, we were succeeded in produced highly transparent samples. In addition to this, hydrophobic feature has been kept. Therefore, we found that any shape of aerogels, including fiber-like shape, can be produces by cutting out with "water jet cutting device", where highly pressurized water is injected through small spot into materal in process.