Aerogel is a super-lightweight material, often described as "frozen smoke" or "solid air." It is made using a gel and removing the liquid, leaving behind a structure filled with air.
Aerogel has many impressive properties, such as being a great insulator, extremely low density, and even being able to absorb sound.
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Contributing to this global effort, the NUS team has successfully pioneered the development
of aerogels using cotton fibres harvested from textile waste.
This is done by infusing the fibres of the
cellulose aerogels with a solution of metallic nanoparticles.
While we have demonstrated novel application of the
cotton aerogels for effective haemorrhage control and heat insulation, we will continue to explore new functions for this advanced material,» said Assoc Prof Duong.
The shapes seen both in the models and in reality are similar to other funnel - shaped impact craters, such as those seen on NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which collected space dust particles
in aerogel.
A time and money - saver, it could appeal to industries already
using aerogel made in other ways.
When Stardust approaches Wild 2 in a few months, the spacecraft will raise a tray of ice - cube - size chunks of
aerogel on an arm shaped like a tennis racket.
These unique properties
make aerogels highly suitable for applications in areas including oil - spill cleaning, personal care products such as diapers, as well as for heat and sound insulation.
These ingredients include superinsulating
aerogels for spacesuits, flexible concrete cloth for construction projects and complex natural polymers that could replace toxic plastics.
Despite the C7's aluminum frame, carbon - fiber hood and roof, magnesium - framed seats, and center - tunnel insulation made
from Aerogel — one of the world's lightest solid materials — the C7 is heavier than its predecessor.
He has also worked with a new material
called Aerogel, a sponge - like insulating substance developed for use in the aerospace industry.
Earlier, in 2000 and 2002, the craft positioned
aerogel collectors on the opposite side of the arm to snare particles of interstellar dust, suspected to be as small as one - tenth the size of comet grains.
Together with his colleagues, Empa researcher Jannis Wernery from the research department «Building Energy Materials and Components» has developed a paste - like mixture of
aerogel particles to be used as filler material for the brick.
The NUS team has also developed a more eco-friendly process to convert paper waste
into aerogels.
Now available to the building industry, just one 3 / 8 - inch Thermablok
Aerogel Insulation Strip ® (pat.pend.)
Printable, ultralight
graphene aerogel opens the door to novel designs of highly efficient energy storage systems for smartphones and other devices
To address these limitations, NUS researchers developed highly compressible hybrid cotton
aerogel pellets which are more effective than cellulose - based sponges for treatment of deep haemorrhagic wounds.
Now, researchers report in ACS Nano that mimicking the structure of the «powdery alligator - flag» plant has enabled them to make a graphene -
based aerogel that meets these needs.
The novel cellulose
aerogels developed by the NUS team boast super high oil absorption capacity.
With high surface area and high porosity, the
biodegradable aerogels could also be used as coating materials in drug delivery or as smart materials.
The liquid component is carefully and completely dried out of the hydrogel to
create aerogel.
From batteries to desalination, a new
carbon aerogel derived from graphene, could have a big role to play in improving a number of existing low carbon [continue reading...]
Liliane Lijn, Heavenly Fragments,
Aerogel fragments of a cone and disk on grey mirror in Perspex case, perlescent metallic coated square column housing DVD player and projector.
As the
Thermablok aerogel material is 95 percent air, and is situated between the stud and the drywall, it breaks the mechanical connection (thermal bridging) exceptionally well.
Then in the late 1980s, while on a visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Tsou saw a piece of
aerogel sitting on a researcher's windowsill.
After years of testing —
aerogel flew to the space station Mir and in the open cargo bay of the space shuttle — Tsou was ready to propose the Stardust mission.
While aerogels were first created in the 1930s, this advanced material has not been widely adopted by industries due to its high production cost.
«Fashion waste turned into multifunctional material: World's
first aerogel made from cotton fiber has wide - ranging applications, such as rapid haemorrhage control and heat insulation.»
These pellets — comprising an optimal mix of cotton and cellulose
aerogels coated with chitosan — are simple and cost - effective to produce, and they can be easily integrated into a clinical syringe to be used as a haemorrhage control device.
The thermal jacket, which weighs about 200 grams, consists of a cotton
aerogel layer embedded within commonly used fabrics to provide heat insulation.
The unique morphology of the cotton
aerogels allows for a larger absorption capacity, while the compressible nature enables the material to expand faster to exert pressure on the wound,» added Assoc Prof Duong.
«As a heat insulation material, our novel cellulose
aerogels offer a few added advantages.
Stardust's cache was sanitized by intense heat as comet particles collided at 14,000 miles per hour with
foamy aerogel in the probe's dust collector.
Our novel cellulose
aerogels therefore serve as an attractive alternative to current methods of oil spill cleaning, which has a potential market size of US$ 143.5 billion.»
A plant stem inspired researchers to develop a new,
versatile aerogel for possible use in bendable devices.
To create a
better aerogel for potential incorporation into bendable electronics, Bai and colleagues took inspiration from the stem structure of the powdery alligator - flag plant (Thalia dealbata), a strong, lean plant capable of withstanding harsh winds.
NASA's Stardust spacecraft has been collecting cosmic dust:
Aerogel tiles and aluminum foil sat for nearly 200 days in the interstellar dust stream before returning to Earth.
The artwork accompanying your article on
aerogels describes them as «solids lighter than air», but this is not borne out...
In November researchers showed off the lightest material ever created: a strong metal mesh about 25 percent less dense than the
wispiest aerogel, a foamlike material that was the old record holder.
To collect speeding particles without damaging them, the spacecraft
carried aerogel, a spongy, silicon - based material that's 99.8 percent empty space.
«The mechanochemical technique developed meant it was possible to produce high - concentration stable aqueous colloidal solutions of boron nitride sheets, which could then be transformed into the ultralight
porous aerogels and membranes for oil clean - up,» said Vadym Mochalin, PhD, a co-author of the paper, who was a research associate professor at Drexel while working on the project, and is now an associate professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
The
remaining aerogel (dried gel), is created in hours, rather than the days or weeks alternative methods take.
One day, Union College's
Aerogel Team's novel way of making «frozen smoke» could improve some of our favorite machines, including cars.
«Our 3 - way
catalytic aerogels promote chemical reactions that convert the three major pollutants in automotive exhaust — unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide — into less harmful water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide,» Anderson said.
«
Because aerogels have very high surface areas and good thermal properties, we think they could replace precious metals, like platinum, used in current catalytic converters.»