What is the process of making aerogel?
Aerogels are among the lightest solid materials known to man. They are created by combining a polymer with a solvent to form a gel, and then removing the liquid from the gel and replacing it with air. Aerogels are extremely porous and very low in density. They are solid to the touch.
How much does it cost to produce aerogel?
Even though producing more aerogel at a time would bring its price down, the process and materials alone come with a high price tag of about $1.00 per cubic centimeter. At about $23,000 per pound, aerogel is currently more expensive than gold [source: NASA JPL, FAQs]!
Can aerogel be mass produced?
At present, mass production is anyway only possible for silica-based aerogels. When you produce silica aerogel, says Koebel, first you have to dissolve a precursor material like silicon dioxide in a liquid such as alcohol. After its solid particles have linked up to form a gel, the wet material then has to be dried.
What is the chemical formula for aerogel?
SiO2
Chemical Identifiers
| Linear Formula | SiO2 |
|---|---|
| IUPAC Name | Dioxosilane |
| SMILES | O=[Si]=O |
| InchI Identifier | InChI=1S/O2Si/c1-3-2 |
| InchI Key | VYPSYNLAJGMNEJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N |
Is aerogel the future?
Aerogels are a class of advanced porous materials with a huge amount of potential. IDTechEx forecast that the market will return to a growth phase and overall exceed $530m for manufacturers by 2029 in their recently updated report on Aerogel 2019-2029: Technologies, Markets and Players.
What is the density of aerogel?
~ 0.1 g/cm3
Aerogel is a highly compressible porous material with the lowest density of any known solid (ρ ~ 0.1 g/cm3).
Can aerogel be flexible?
Additionally, most aerogels as-produced are extremely brittle and friable (that is, they tend to fragment and pulverize). There are several ways aerogels can be made strong and even flexible, enough that aerogels can now be used as structural elements.
What are the downsides of Aerogel?
Disadvantages: Increased density (typically about one-third to one-half the density of water) Decreased clarity (from translucent to foggy to opaque) Decreased surface area (by about half)
Why are aerogels used in science and Technology?
Silica aerogels have drawn a lot of interest both in science and technology because of their low bulk density (up to 95% of their volume is air), hydrophobicity, low thermal conductivity, high surface area, and optical transparency. Aerogels are synthesized from molecular precursors by sol-gel processing.
How is aerogel made in a pressure vessel?
In the case of making aerogels, a gel is placed in a pressure vessel under a volume of the same liquid held within its pores (lets say ethanol for example). The pressure vessel is then slowly heated to the liquid’s critical temperature.
What are two main routes of starch-based aerogel fabrication?
There are two main fabrication routes of starch-based aerogels based on their shapes: one is for monolith aerogel, another is for microsphere.
How does the purification of aerogel take place?
Purification is done by simply soaking the gel under a pure solvent (depending on the gel this could be acetone, ethanol, acetonitrile, etc.), allowing impurities to diffuse out and pure solvent to diffuse in. The solvent in which the gel is soaked is typically exchanged with fresh solvent multiple times over the course several days.