Applications
Aerogels are used for a variety of applications:
- In granular form to add insulation to skylights. Georgia Institute of Technology's 2007 Solar Decathlon House project used an aerogel as an insulator in the semi-transparent roof.
- Transparent silica aerogel would be very suitable as a thermal insulation material for windows, significantly limiting thermal losses of buildings. One research team has shown that producing aerogel in a weightless environment can produce particles with a more uniform size and reduce the Rayleigh scattering effect in silica aerogel, thus making the aerogel less blue and more transparent.
- A chemical adsorber for cleaning up spills.
- A catalyst or a catalyst carrier.
- Thickening agents in some paints and cosmetics.
- Laser targets for the National Ignition Facility.
- Commercial manufacture of aerogel 'blankets' began around the year 2000, combining silica aerogel and fibrous reinforcement that turns the brittle aerogel into a durable, flexible material. The mechanical and thermal properties of the product may be varied based upon the choice of reinforcing fibers, the aerogel matrix and opacification additives included in the composite.
- NASA used an aerogel to trap space dust particles aboard the Stardust spacecraft. The particles vaporize on impact with solids and pass through gases, but can be trapped in aerogels. NASA also used aerogel for thermal insulation of the Mars Rover and space suits.
- The US Navy is evaluating aerogel undergarments as passive thermal protection for divers.
- In particle physics as radiators in Cherenkov effect detectors, such as the ACC system of the Belle detector, used in the Belle Experiment at KEKB. The suitability of aerogels is determined by their low index of refraction, filling the gap between gases and liquids, and their transparency and solid state, making them easier to use than cryogenic liquids or compressed gases. Their low mass is also advantageous for space missions.
- Resorcinol–formaldehyde aerogels (polymers chemically similar to phenol formaldehyde resins) are used as precursors for manufacture of carbon aerogels, or when an organic insulator with large surface is desired. They come as high-density material, with surface area about 600 m2/g.
- Metal–aerogel nanocomposites prepared by impregnating the hydrogel with solution containing ions of a transition metal and irradiating the result with gamma rays, precipitates nanoparticles of the metal. Such composites can be used as catalysts, sensors, electromagnetic shielding, and in waste disposal. A prospective use of platinum-on-carbon catalysts is in fuel cells.
- As a drug delivery system owing to its biocompatibility. Due to its high surface area and porous structure, drugs can be adsorbed from supercritical CO
2. The release rate of the drugs can be tailored based on the properties of aerogel - Carbon aerogels are used in the construction of small electrochemical double layer supercapacitors. Due to the high surface area of the aerogel, these capacitors can be 1/2000th to 1/5000th the size of similarly rated electrolytic capacitors. Aerogel supercapacitors can have a very low impedance compared to normal supercapacitors and can absorb or produce very high peak currents. At present, such capacitors are polarity-sensitive and need to be wired in series to achieve a working voltage of greater than about 2.75 V.
- Dunlop Sport uses aerogel in some of its raccqets for tennis, squash and badminton.
- In water purification, chalcogels have shown promise in absorbing the heavy metal pollutants mercury, lead, and cadmium from water.
- Aerogel can introduce disorder into superfluid helium-3.
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