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A team of international scientists have created a new form of highly-efficient, low-cost insulation based on the wings of a dragonfly. The material, known as an aerogel, is the most porous material known to man and ultralight, with a piece the size of a family car weighing less than a kilogram.
Starting out as a wet silica gel, similar in structure to jelly, the material is carefully dried to create a strong, porous material. But until now, removing the water molecules without collapsing the fine silica structure has been a long, difficult and expensive process and as a consequence, the use of aerogels has been limited to a few highly specialist tasks, such as the collection of stardust in space.
Now a team of experts led by Newcastle University, UK, has managed to cheaply replicate the process by mimicking the way in which the dragonfly dries out its wings. Instead of drying the silica under high temperature and pressure, the team used bicarbonate of soda (the same used to make cakes rise) to 'blow' out the water molecules, trapping carbon dioxide gas in the pores. Publishing their findings today in the academic journal Advanced Materials, the team say the next step will be to scale up the process to create larger panels that can be used to insulate our homes and buildings.
[...] Joint lead author Dr Xiao Han, Newcastle University, said the new technique would reduce the cost of production by 96% -- from around $100 to $4 per kilogram.
Bioinspired Synthesis of Monolithic and Layered Aerogels (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201706294) (DX)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by SunTzuWarmaster on Friday April 27 2018, @12:22PM (10 children)
The natural question is "what can we build out of this thing?"
Answer: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1000936116000418 [sciencedirect.com]
1 - Insulation.
2 - A replacement for black graphite carbon fiber.
So - if it is cheap - buildings, cars, airplanes, bicycles, helmets, tennis rackets, robots, sunglasses, and all other kinds of awesome stuff.
I welcome the future of dragonfly-wing skyscrapers with dragonfly-wing windows with built-in displays (like the veins in dragonfly wings).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @12:56PM (2 children)
If $100 today gets you a chunk bigger than a "family car", is that already cheap enough to be used for home insulation? Bringing it down to $4/kg is just the icing on the cake, or reflects that a much larger volume can be churned out faster.
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(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Friday April 27 2018, @01:40PM (1 child)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Osamabobama on Friday April 27 2018, @07:32PM
I started down that rabbit hole, exploring the Supporting Materials document at the Wiley site (it seems my employer has access). I skimmed the document for density, and found numbers from 0.32 to 0.63 grams per cubic centimeter (depending on the preparation recipe). That seems too heavy. Later, I found specific volume of the pores, ranging from 0.66 to 0.96 cubic centimeters per gram (depending on the sample type). So I'm not sure if the bulk density is the two numbers multiplied together, or what the $4 per kg actually buys.
Beyond that, I found a reference to a guy getting a quote for a 40 foot shipping container delivered 300 miles for $780. Other sources suggest $3 to $6 per mile. I'm fairly certain that will dwarf the cost of manufacturing, if a car-sized lump is only $4. Maybe a better question is how much will it cost to make on-site?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday April 27 2018, @04:01PM
Checking price of CHD (NYSE) ...
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday April 27 2018, @04:06PM (1 child)
Chemisorption - chemical/oil spill cleanup
Chromatography
Diffusion control media
Time-release substrates
Battery media
Low-profile thermal and acoustic insulation
Particle detection (Cherenkov detectors)
High-temperature thermal insulation
Optics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @04:42PM
It was also used by NASA's Stardust [wikipedia.org] sample return mission. If another mission [wikipedia.org] gets sent to sample the water plumes of Enceladus, it would probably include aerogel.
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(Score: 2) by ledow on Friday April 27 2018, @04:19PM (2 children)
The second question is:
What can you build that will actually stay like that?
Aerogel doesn't like water. It doesn't like even mildly rough handling. It doesn't like chemicals.
Sure, you can put a bunsen under a thin layer and keep your hand on top. But you can't use it to insulate a building because the water will use it like a sponge and soak up the wall, destroying the aerogel's prime properties - insulation and weight.
Like a lot of things - graphene sheets, aerogels, etc. - they are fabulous lab items but not commercial materials yet. And the commercial materials will be very different.
A pure graphene string, for instance, would be utterly invisible and able to decapitate you without breaking. A thick strand that's barely visible would entangle a digger's hydraulics, bringing it to a grinding halt, and you wouldn't be able to break it. Do they sound like practical real-world materials to you?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @04:45PM
Can't you just cover the aerogel in Tyvek or plastic or something?
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by leftover on Friday April 27 2018, @05:33PM
Current/old way aerogel is an open-pore foam due to the way it is made, displacing one fluid with another that then sublimates IIRC. This new process sounds like it is blowing closed-cell foam on a tiny scale. That would change absorption drastically and might even permit using a more resilient material than silica. I do wish they were a little more forthcoming about the other components of their secret sauce. This could be tried at home with low-tech items appropriated from the kitchen, then replaced when they are ruined!
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 29 2018, @06:08PM
I've always wondered why ovens don't use this stuff. Is it really that expensive? Or is conventional insulation already good enough?