| Summary: | In this paper, we report a new and convenient method for the synthesis of insulating aerogel by recycling solid waste coal gangue, which can reduce the industrial production cost of silica aerogels and realize high value-added utilization of solid waste. Sodium silicate was prepared from a cheap industrial waste coal gangue as the precursor for silica aerogels, which was used for silica wet gel preparation by a one pot method; this method of solvent exchange/surface modification was carried out quickly by mechanical stirring process, and the wet gels derived from coal gangue were dried under ambient pressure condition. A high surface area (~748 m<sup>2</sup>/g) nanostructured aerogel with a 3D open porous microstructure was synthesized, which exhibits a low density (~0.18 g/cm<sup>3</sup>) and a superior thermal insulation performance (~0.033 W·m<sup>−1</sup>·K<sup>−1</sup>). More significantly, the synthetic yield of silica aerogel powder by recycling coal gangue can reach 92%.
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