from the tiny-bubbles-make-me-warm-all-over dept.
A team of researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology, in China, working with a colleague in the U.S., has developed a new kind of aerogel for use in flexible thermal insulation material applications. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they made their aerogel and how well it worked when extreme heat was applied.
Prior work has shown that aerogels made using ceramic materials work very well as thermal insulators—their very low densities have very low thermal conductivity. But such materials are brittle, making them unavailable for use in flexible material applications, such as suits for firefighters. They also tend to break down when exposed to very high temperatures. In this new effort, the researchers have developed a method for making a ceramic based aerogel that can be used in flexible applications and also does not break down when exposed to very high temperatures.
To create their aerogel, the researchers took a novel approach—they pushed a zirconium-silicon precursor, using a plastic syringe, into a chamber with turbulent airflow—an electrospinning approach that produced a ceramic material that resembled cotton candy. They then folded the resulting material into a zig-zag pattern and heated it to 1100° C. Heating it in such a way changed the texture of the material from a glassy state to a nanocrystal. Study of the resulting material using a spectroscope showed that their approach had resulted in the creation of a material with nanocrystalline bits embedded in an amorphous zircon matrix—a flexible aerogel made using a ceramic that was not prone to breaking down under high temperatures.
Journal Reference:
Guo, Jingran, Fu, Shubin, Deng, Yuanpeng, et al. Hypocrystalline ceramic aerogels for thermal insulation at extreme conditions [open], Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04784-0)
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Monday July 04 2022, @02:09PM (5 children)
That's neat and all, but I'm more interested in seeing aerogel manufacturering ramp up dramatically so the costs come down to rival existing building insulation materials. The better insulation we have, the less energy we need to waste heating/cooling things.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday July 04 2022, @03:56PM (4 children)
Ceramic nanomaterials... in buildings... what could possibly go wrong... with your lungs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos#Health_impact [wikipedia.org]
We have already been through this. For
decadescenturies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos-related_diseases#History [wikipedia.org]Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Monday July 04 2022, @05:19PM
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was referring to the "old" aerogel where flexibility isn't relevant.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Monday July 04 2022, @05:27PM
Perhaps, but according to TFA and even the summary this was not presented as a construction material. The article mentions fire protection of firefighting personnel and insulation of fuel lines in high heat areas of airplanes.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @09:18PM
The planes that entered the buildings were the core reason to tear them down.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 05 2022, @04:27AM
Not much, if you're smart about it. A lot of what we have is ceramics and most of it is drama-free. Let's consider some observations: asbestos is unusually harmful to lungs and much denser by orders of magnitude than an aerogel material would be - meaning vastly more breathable fibers and such when it is made friable; regulation actually works in this situation since otherwise asbestos wouldn't have been banned for most building purposes in the first place; and we can design those nanomaterials to be less harmful to human tissue and the environment.
Ridiculous - though a damaged building with asbestos would have huge asbestos problems which might tip the decision to demolition, right? WTC 1 and 2 were destroyed as a result of the airplane collisions. WTC 7 fell soon after due to fire damage. Many other buildings [wikipedia.org] in the area had to be torn down afterward due to damage from the collapses or fire:
For those counting, that's the entire 7 buildings of the original WTC complex plus two adjacent buildings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @07:03PM (3 children)
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(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday July 04 2022, @07:12PM
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(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday July 04 2022, @07:13PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 04 2022, @09:08PM
No ads for me, using the EFF Privacy Badger in Firefox.