Traditional phenolic aerogel production suffers from complex processes and environmental pollution caused by organic solvents

hindering industrial scalability. In this paper， phenolic aerogels were synthesized via a sol – gel method followed by ambient pressure drying

using resorcinol and formaldehyde as reactants

deionized water as solvent

and polycationic electrolyte poly diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC) as a soft template. A systematic inve

stigation was conducted to evaluate the influence of PDADMAC content on the structural and functional properties of phenolic aerogels. The microstructural morphology

pore architecture

compressive behavior

and thermal stability were comprehensively characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

mercury intrusion porosimetry

Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis

mechanical compression testing

and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results demonstrated that the linear shrinkage ratio of phenolic aerogels remained below 5% within a broad PDADMAC content range during ambient drying.The average pore diameter exhibited a trend of initial reduction followed by gradual expansion

while the specific surface area displayed an inverse pattern. At an optimal PDADMAC loading of 5%

the aerogel achieved a minimized average pore diameter of 0.11 μm and a maximized specific surface area of 113.14 m

2

·g

–1

accompanied by the highest thermal stability. The entanglement of PDADMAC’s linear macromolecular chains generated physical crosslinking points within the aerogel matrix

which substantially enhanced the compressive modulus to 40.82 MPa. This work establishes a foundation for green and simplifies industrial production of phenolic aerogels.