Incorporation of Ag nanocrystal into indium tin oxide films (Ag–ITO) could enhance the conductivity of transparent oxide thus attracts more and more interest. Ag–ITO films were prepared by a modified sol–gel method. The surface structure was investigated by X-ray diffraction, X-ray diffuse scattering, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope techniques. The results showed that stannous chloride worked well as the reduction agent of silver and ion donor source, resulting in high quality nanocomposite thin films. The embedment of silver nanoparticles decreased the crystallization temperature and inhibited the growth of indium oxide. Ag–ITO films have a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, the nanocomposite films were densified and homogenized through prolonging the thermal duration time. XPS results confirmed that a small amount of silver oxide appeared.

ITO nano-powders are prepared by sol–gel method followed by a calcination process. The microstructure responses with thermal treatments are performed by the control of annealing temperature and holding time, and the structures are characterized by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. It is found that, the structural evolution shows different characters at low temperature (≤800°C) and high temperature (>800°C). At low temperature, sample is densified and has a transition from a hierarchical to a surface fractal structure due to the diffusion and elimination of interaggregate pores with increasing annealing time or temperature. At high temperature, samples all show surface fractal structures at whole length scale and the surface roughness increases due to the growth of crystalline grains with increasing annealing temperature, in contrast the roughness is slowly decreased because of the diffusion along the crystalline boundary with holding time.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film as one of promising transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films has attracted ever increasing attention owing to its special optical, photocatalytic and optoelectronic properties. In this research, ITO films were prepared by sol–gel dip-coating method and annealed at different temperatures subsequently. The lateral and surface structures of ITO films as well as the structural evolution have been assessed by grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) technique. The films show pore fractal structure when annealed at low temperature (≤800 °C) which transforms to a hierarchical fractal structure at high temperature (1000 °C). As the temperature rises, films are densified due to the elimination of small pores on the surface at low temperature and the shrinkage of big pores buried inside at high temperature. However, the surface roughness and porosity near the surface are improved at high annealing temperature.

The unitary thermal insulation fiber materials can not satisfy rigorous high temperature environment usually. New inorganic coatings were prepared by adding SiO2 aerogels super-insulation powder into high temperature adhesive. Aerogels are high dispersive solid materials which consist of colloid particles or high polymer molecule and have continuous random network structure filling with gaseous dispersive medium. The coatings with super insulation function were made by means of adding thermal-proof materials to the coatings. The microstructure of light porous power and the states of coatings on the surface of fiber paper under different state were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The insulated effect of the composite materials was tested by considering thermal conductivity. On the basis of this, the coatings on the surface of fiber paper were optimized according to the material thermal-insulation performance and the materials that could be satisfactory to the service conditions were made in the end. The results show that silica aerogels powder is dispersed equably in high temperature adhesive. The new inorganic coatings possess themselves of good thermal-insulation effect and can be used as insulated space-layers. The insulation ability of fiber paper is improved obviously.

Two-step acid-base catalyzed silica xerogels were prepared through sol-gel and ambient pressure drying. Various additive components were main fators which influenced the porosity of silica xerogles. An orthogonal array (OA) design OA9(34) was applied to select the optimum conditions of additives. The effects of the molar ratio of H2O, alcohol, HCl, and ammonia were evaluated on the basis of the other same process parameters. Every experiment was conducted several times under different process conditions which included reactive temperature, the acid catalyzed time, aging, exchanging solvent and drying for assuring gels formed. The porosity was an index which was used to appraise the characteristic of silica xerogels. Two kinds of silica xerogels, prepared by the most optimal molar ratio (OMR) and the best OA experiment respectively, were compared by means of SEM. The results showed that the most OMR of TEOS, H2O, alcohol, HCl and ammonia was 1:4:10:7.5× 10-4:0.0375.