Nano-porous monolithic SiO2 aerogel as insulation material was prepared from silicon alkoxide as the precursor materials, followed by ethanol supercritical drying in this paper. In order to improve the mechanical properties of silica aerogel monoliths, the ceramic fibers were mixed in the pure aerogel, or integrating inorganic fiber materials as skeleton materials with low thermal conductivity supporting. Instron 5566, 5500R Material Testing Machine was used to measure the mechanical intensity. SEM was used to characterize the morphology of the silica aerogel monoliths. The thermal properties of the silica aerogels were determined by using the Hot Disk device. The results show that new type composite materials had a low effect on the thermal conductivities of the silica aerogel monoliths, but improved the mechanical intensity clearly. It made a great progress in the practical application of the SiO2 aerogel monoliths.

Vanadium oxide films were prepared via the sol–gel process and dip coating method, using V2O5as raw materials and H2O2(volume fraction 30) as the solvent. Mn and Ni ions were added to vanadium oxide sol to prepare doping vanadium oxide films. The films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical techniques. The add-on of Metal ions will not affect the morphology of the vanadium oxide films, but change the valence of vanadium ion and vanadium oxide crystal phase. Furthermore, cyclic voltammetry curves show that metal ions doping vanadium oxide films exhibit reversible electrochemical reaction. But electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicates pure vanadium oxide film has a better diffusion rate.

In this paper, V2O5-Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite film is prepared through sol-gel technique and dip-coating method. MWCNTs pretreated by mixed acid, H2O2 and cheap V2O5 powder are used as raw materials. The morphology, structure and components of the composite film are characterized by corresponding testing instruments. The final electrochemical measurements indicate that: the V2O5-MWCNTs composite film as cathode materials for lithium batteries exhibits better electrochemical performance than ordinary V2O5 film.