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posted by takyon on Friday April 27 2018, @11:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the aerocake dept.

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)


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday April 27 2018, @04:14PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday April 27 2018, @04:14PM (#672628)

    1) for buildings, thermal mass does matter. There's a reason we don't all live in Earth-friendly tents.
    2) how many decades does this structure last? 2 or 10 makes a huge difference when talking about homes.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Friday April 27 2018, @05:51PM

    by deimtee (3272) on Friday April 27 2018, @05:51PM (#672680) Journal

    1) for buildings, thermal mass does matter. There's a reason we don't all live in Earth-friendly tents.

    Yeah, but you want the themal mass on the inside of the insulation, not as the insulation. Ideally your house would have a tough outer layer, excellent insulation, then an inner thermal mass.

    2) how many decades does this structure last? 2 or 10 makes a huge difference when talking about homes.

    Have you seen the way they build homes now? Two decades is probably long enough to outlast the house.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.