We present data for energy dissipation factor (Q−1) over a broad temperature range at various pressures of a torsion pendulum setup used to study He confined in a 98% open silica aerogel. Values for Q−1 above Tc are temperature independent and have weak pressure dependence. Below Tc, a deliberate axial compression of the aerogel by 10% widens the range of metastability for a superfluid Equal Sp...

To identify π and K in the region of 1.0 ∼ 2.5 GeV/c, a threshold Cherenkov counter equipped with silica aerogels has been investigated. Silica aerogels with a low refractive index of 1.013 have been successfully produced using a new technique. By making use of these aerogels as radiators, we have constructed a Cherenkov counter and have checked its properties in a test beam. The obtained resul...

In this study, catalysts for fatty acid methyl esters (FAME or biodiesel) synthesis with K2CO3 as the active component on an alumina/silica support were synthesized using the sol–gel method, which was followed by drying the “dense” wet gels with supercritical carbon dioxide to obtain the aerogels. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD analysis, FTIR spectroscopy and N2 physisorption ...

Polybutylene succinate (PBS) has become a potential candidate, similar to polypropylene (PP) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), for use as an organic plastic material due to its outstanding mechanical properties as well as high thermal deformation characteristics. A new composition of silica aerogel nanoparticles extracted from rice waste with PBS is proposed for use as a dielectric (εr...

High-resolution calorimetric studies have been made of the liquid crystal phase transitions for several dispersions of 70-Å-diam silica spheres ~aerosil! in octylcyanobiphenyl ~8CB! as a function of silica density rS . The excess specific heat peaks associated with the nematic-isotropic (N-I) and the nematic–smectic-A (N-SmA) transitions both exhibit shifts to lower temperatures, decreases in t...