The experimental results on the synthesis and physical properties of the ambient pressure dried hydrophobic silica aerogels in the presence of various surface modification (silylating) agents are presented. The silica aerogels were prepared with 1.12 specific gravity ion exchanged sodium silicate solution, IN ammonium hydroxide, solvent exchanged with ethanol and hexane, and surface modification with 20% silylating agent in hexane followed by drying the modified gel up to 200 degrees C. The molar ratio of sodium silicate, water, ammonium hydroxide and silylating agent was kept at 1:45:4.3 x 10(-2) :5, respectively. The physical properties of the aerogels such as density, % of porosity, pore volume, thermal conductivity and contact angle measurements were studied by using various mono, di and tri alkyl or aryl silylating agents (SAs). The tri alkyl silylating agents produced low % of volume shrinkage (2%), low density (0.06 g/cm(3)), low refractive index (1.011), more pore volume (16.15cm(3)/g), high percentage of porosity (96.9%) and hydrophobic (contact angle > 150 degrees) silica aerogels. It was found from the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) studies of the aerogels that the intensity of the bands related to the Si-C and C-H are more and the Si-OH and -OH are less with the tri than mono and di alkyl SAs. It was found from the TGA-DTA studies of the aerogels with increase in temperature above 325 degrees C, the % of weight decrease in TGA and exothermic peak in DTA are more with tri than the mono and di alkyl SAs. The SEM studies of the aerogels showed the large pore and particle sizes in the silica network with the tri alkyl SAs. The % of optical transmission of the aerogels is less with the tri alkyl SAs than the mono and di alkyl SAs. It was found from the contact angle and water adsorption studies that the hydrophobicity of the silica aerogel is more with tri alkyl than the di and mono alkyl silylating agents. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.