Aerogel is a new material with nano porous structure. In 1931, it was invented by Kistler.S. in the United States. Because it is light mist and bluish blue, it is also known as "blue smoke" and "frozen smoke". It has created 15 Guinness records, showing many unusual properties in the fields of heat, optics, electricity, mechanics, acoustics and so on.
Aerogels are mainly composed of silica aerogels, alumina aerogels, zirconia aerogels and carbon aerogels because of their different compositions. At present, the insulation properties of silica aerogels are attractive and the technology is also mature. The industrialization development of aerogels at home and abroad mostly focuses on the application of silica aerogels for insulation applications.
Aerogels have a porosity of up to 80 to 99.8% due to nanoporous network structure. The thermal conductivity at room temperature can be as low as 0.013w/ (M. K). It is a material with good thermal insulation and has broad application prospects in aerospace, petrochemical, power metallurgy, ship vehicles, refrigerator, cold storage, clothing tent, building energy conservation and so on. It is a revolutionary substitute for traditional thermal insulation materials.
With China's economic transformation and upgrading, the continuous promotion of energy conservation and consumption policy and China's implementation of nanomaterial strategy for many years, aerogel materials have attracted widespread attention from government, academia, business and investment circles in recent years.
Aerogels are one of the new technologies and products that China is showing gradually and are almost competitive with the world counterparts. In a sense, the development of China's aerogel industry will have an increasingly great impact on the development of the world aerogel industry.
At present, the depth and breadth of China's universities in aerogel research, China's enterprises in low cost aerogel manufacturing technology perseverance, are in the front of the world. Perhaps in the future, we will see a company becoming HUAWEI in the aerogel field, relying on technological innovation and low cost to attack the world.
