Adolfs, ClaudiaClaudiaAdolfsAltarabeen, RazanRazanAltarabeenKimmritz, LeonLeonKimmritzGibowsky, LaraLaraGibowskySchröter, BaldurBaldurSchröterBeuermann, SabineSabineBeuermannSmirnova, IrinaIrinaSmirnova2024-06-172024-06-172024-06-14Macromolecular Rapid Communications: 2400147 (2024)https://hdl.handle.net/11420/47868Hydrophilicity is one important drawback of bio-based aerogels. To overcome this issue, a novel approach for the preparation of mesoporous, water repellent aerogels is introduced, which combines synthesis of crosslinked bio-based copolymers from methacrylate copolymerizations, followed by solvent exchange and supercritical drying steps. The influence of monomers with different non-polar ester groups (methyl, vanillin, tetrahydrofurfuryl) on textural properties and water contact angles of the dry products is assessed. Final aerogels show generally high overall porosities (∼ 96%), low densities (0.07 – 0.11 g cm−3) as well as fine, mainly mesoporous networks, and specific surface areas in the range of 120 – 240 m2 g−1. Hereby, choice of the methacrylate ester groups results in differences of the resulting pore-size distributions. Water repellency tests show stable static water contact angles in the hydrophobic range (∼ 100 °) achieved for the substrate containing the vanillin ester group. On the contrary the other substrates absorb water quickly, which indicates a decisive role of the ester group. The presented approach opens up a new pathway to bio-based aerogels with intrinsic hydrophobicity. It is suggested that the properties are tailored by the choice of the monomer structure, hence enabling further adaption and optimization of the products.en1521-39272024Wileyhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/Natural Sciences and Mathematics::540: ChemistryJournal Article10.15480/882.1338710.1002/marc.20240014710.15480/882.13387Journal Article