Aerogels

1
Aerogels

• Recipe
• Features
• Additional
• Information

2
Recipe

• Ingredients
• Precondensed silica (Silbond H-5, TEOS, or
  equivalent)
• Catalyst (ethanol, water, aqueous ammonia or
  protic acid)
• Process
• Place material into autoclave filled with ethanol
• Pressurize at 750-850 psi with CO2 Temperature
  at 5-10 (C)
• Use liquid CO2 to remove the ethanol
• Adjust pressure and temperature to critical
  points of CO2
• Using drying process, finished product takes 12
  hours to 6 days

3
Features

• Large internal surface area
• 400-1000 m3/g
• Mechanically strong
• Support over 1500x own weight
• Transparent / Optical clarity
• Good heat/sound insulator
• Extremely low density
• 0.003 g/cm3

4
Additional Information

• Cost
• Disadvantage
• Types of Aerogels

5
Reference

• eande.lbl.gov/ECS/aerogels/satoc.htm
• www.mkt-intl.com/aerogels/
• www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/ueic/articles/