In this blog post, we will take a look at how aerogel, which is as light as air and has excellent thermal insulation properties, is revolutionizing science and technology and our daily lives.
A long time ago, a research team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich succeeded in creating gold that floats on water. 20-carat gold without mixing any other substance. How can pure gold float in water? The answer is easy to find in our daily lives. Soap sinks in water. However, the soap bubbles left over after washing your face do not sink. The reason soap bubbles float in water is because they contain more air than soap. A research team at the ETH Zurich used this principle to create a foam consisting of 98% air and 2% gold. A solid in which air occupies most of the volume is called an aerogel.
The first aerogel was created by Steven Kistler in 1931. He succeeded in creating an aerogel for the first time by turning the liquid contained in a silicon gel into a gas. This is silica gel. Aerogel can be made from a variety of materials, not just silicon. At the time, the cost and time required to make aerogel prevented it from being commercialized. However, as technology has advanced, aerogel can be made using a variety of materials, and as a result, aerogel has begun to be used in various industries. Today, it plays an important role especially in the fields of architecture, aerospace, and electronics.
Imagine the interior of an aerogel. A skeleton that is thinner than a thread forms numerous holes, and the interior is filled with air. It is a structure similar to that of bones with osteoporosis. What would happen if you were to impact an aerogel? It would shatter into pieces. Aerogel has the disadvantage of being vulnerable to impact. Therefore, care must be taken when handling aerogel, and research is underway to overcome this weakness through various reinforcement technologies. For example, attempts are being made to increase the durability of aerogel to withstand impacts by reinforcing it with carbon or nanomaterials.
You may be wondering what use aerogel, which is so vulnerable to impact, could possibly have. However, the characteristics of aerogel can be very useful in our daily lives and industries. For example, aerogel is very light and at the same time has excellent soundproofing and thermal insulation properties, making it an innovative material in various fields. Just as the volume of a sound is significantly reduced when you shout into a sponge, aerogel can also serve as an excellent soundproofing material. In the field of architecture, research is actively being conducted to apply this soundproofing performance to buildings and vehicles that are noisy.
Aerogel also has a very low thermal conductivity, making it an excellent insulator. Unlike styrofoam or fiberglass, which are used as general insulators, aerogel can withstand high temperatures of over 1,000 degrees. This makes it particularly useful in industrial sites that need to maintain insulation performance in high-temperature environments or for fire prevention. Aerogel, which maintains its performance even at high temperatures, is gradually expanding its use in various fields, including home appliances, clothing, and sports equipment. Furthermore, in the aerospace industry, aerogel is used on the exterior of spacecraft to prepare for extreme temperature changes.
Aerogel’s other feature, a “hollow structure,” also plays an important role in scientific research and environmental protection. The Stardust spacecraft, launched in 1999, is a prime example of the potential use of aerogel, as it collected space dust from a comet. Aerogel’s hollow structure was a great help in the process of collecting space dust, and the dust could be collected without damage. Thanks to these properties, aerogel is still used by the scientific community as an important tool for capturing and analyzing fine particles and harmful substances.
Recently, methods have been developed to make aerogel more economically. In the past, the manufacturing cost was too high to be used on a mass scale, but now, several research institutes, including the National University of Singapore, have succeeded in making aerogel from paper, greatly improving cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency. Aerogel is expected to contribute to energy savings and environmental protection if it becomes more widely commercialized. In particular, in today’s society where energy efficiency is important, aerogel will play an important role in improving the thermal insulation performance of buildings and saving energy.
The future of aerogel is even brighter. While it has been mainly used in aerospace and high-end industries, aerogel will be used in more places in our daily lives in the future. Aerogel’s applications will continue to increase in household insulation and soundproofing materials, and in thermal barriers for electronic products. Literally as light and versatile as air, aerogel will become a new material that can make a big difference in areas we never imagined.
