First rare-earth phosphate aerogel: sol–gel synthesis of monolithic ceric hydrogen phosphate aerogel

Since the late 1960s, ceric hydrogen phosphates have attracted the attention of scientists due to remarkable ion exchange, sorption, proton-conduction and catalytic properties. In this work, through the application of various solvents, we, for the first time, have obtained monolithic aerogels based on ceric hydrogen phosphates with high porosity (~99%) and extremely low density (~10 μg/cm3). The composition and structure of aerogels were thoroughly studied with XRD, TEM, SEM, XPS, low temperature nitrogen adsorption methods, TGA/DSC, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The aerogels were found to belong to the fibrous macroporous aerogels family.