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Peter Tsou of NASA's Jet

Propulsion Laboratory is
holding a sample of aerogel.

WHAT, you may ask, remarkable properties, most cm x 2.5 cm) of aerogel
is aerogel? Aerogel is the notably is its effectiveness as flattened-out would have more
lightest and lowest-density a thermal insulator and its surface area than an entire
solid known to exist. It is a extremely low density. football field! Aerogel's
manufactured material with It is typically 50- superlow density makes it
the lowest bulk density of any 99.5% air, yet can hold 500 useful as a lightweight
known porous solid. It is to 4,000 times its weight in structural material, and its
nicknamed frozen smoke, solid applied force. Aerogel can superhigh internal surface
smoke or blue smoke due to have surface areas ranging area makes it a
its translucent nature and the from 250 to 3,000 square superinsulating solid material.
way light scatters in the meters per gram, meaning
material. It has several that a cubic inch (2.5 cm x 2.5
Many people think that aerogel
SAVE THE
is a new invention. But the truth is,
ENVIRONMENT
Aerogel is described by scientists
aerogel was first created in 1931, almost
as the “ultimate sponge”, with
millions of tiny pores on its
surface making it ideal for 78 years ago. Samuel Stephen Kistler
absorbing pollutants in water. a
new version of aerogel has been was notably the first creator of aerogel.
designed to mop up lead and
mercury from water. Other He was also therefore the first to
versions are designed to absorb
oil spills. commercialize it. He realized that this

Scientists are optimistic that it aerogel had very efficient thermal


could be used to deal with
environmental catastrophes such insulation attributes.In 1931, to develop
as the Sea Empress spillage in
1996, when 72,000 tons of crude the first aerogels, Kistler used a process
oil were released off the coast of
Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. known as supercritical drying. However,

the process involved a tedious process

with many possible errors.

FAST FACTS
Aerogel is
 99.8% air
 39 times more insulating
than the best fibreglass
insulation
 1,000 times less dense
than glass
 Used on Mars
Pathfinder's rover
 Composed of pure silicon
dioxide
Aerogel was invented by an American
chemist for a bet in 1931, but early
versions were so brittle and costly that it
was largely consigned to laboratories.

It was not until a decade ago that Nasa started taking


an interest in the substance and putting it to a more
practical use. In 1999, the space agency fitted its
In 2002 Aspen Aerogel, a Stardust space probe with a mitt packed full of aerogel
company created by Nasa, produced a to catch the dust from a comet’s tail. It returned with a
stronger and more flexible version of rich collection of samples last year.
the gel. It is now being used to develop
an insulated lining in space suits for
the first manned mission to Mars,
scheduled for 2018.
Silica aerogel is the most common type of aerogel and the most
extensively studied and used. It is a silica-based substance, derived
from silica gel. Silica aerogel strongly absorbs infrared radiation. It
allows the construction of materials that let light into buildings but trap
heat for solar heating. It has remarkable thermal insulative properties,
having an extremely low thermal conductivity

Carbon aerogels are composed of particles with sizes in the


nanometer range, covalently bonded together. They have very high
porosity (over 50%, with pore diameter under 100 nm) and surface
areas ranging between 400–1000 m²/g. Depending on the density,
carbon aerogels may be electrically conductive, making composite
aerogel paper useful for electrodes in capacitors or deionization
electrodes. Carbon aerogels are also extremely "black" in the infrared spectrum, reflecting only 0.3% of
radiation between 250 nm and 14.3 µm, making them efficient for solar energy collectors.
WHY AEROGELS
ARE BLUE?

SO why is aerogel blue? The


same reason the sky is blue--
Rayleigh scattering.

Rayleigh Scattering

Rayleigh scattering is an optical


phenomenon that results when
white light scatters off of
particles smaller than the
wavelengths of light, particles
To the touch, aerogels feel like typically of the size 5 to 200
a light but rigid foam, nm. These particles scatter the
something between
Styrofoam and the green shorter wavelengths of white
floral foam used for light more easily than the longer
arranging flowers.
wavelengths, meaning that blue
and violet are scattered the
most. Our eyes are much more
sensitive to blue wavelengths
than to violet wavelengths, and
so we only see blue light.
Aerogels contain nanopores of
Despite the fact that it is prone to air that are only a few hundred
shattering, it is very strong
structurally. The figure shows A times larger than atoms. These
2.5 kg brick is supported by a nanopores, made of silica
piece of aerogel weighing only 2
(which is what glass is made
grams.
out of) act as particles that
scatter white light and make the
aerogel appear blue.
Aerogels are good thermal
insulators because they almost
nullify the three methods of heat
transfer (convection, conduction
and radiation).
Catching comet dust is no vaporize them
easy feat! When the entirely. To collect
spacecraft flies past the the particles
comet, the impact velocity without damaging
of the particles they are them, STARDUST
captured will be up to 9 will use an
times the speed of a bullet extraordinary
fired from a rifle. Although substance called American interplanetary
the captured particles will aerogel - a silicon-based mission of the NASA Jet
each be smaller than a grain solid with a porous, sponge- Propulsion Laboratory,
of sand, high-speed capture like structure in which 99 whose primary purpose was
could alter their shape and percent of the volume is to investigate the makeup of
chemical composition - or empty space. Stardust is an the comet Wild 2 and its
coma. It was launched on
February 7, 1999 by NASA,
travelled nearly 3 billion
miles (5·109 km), and
returned to Earth on
January 15, 2006 to release a
sample material capsule.[1] It
is the first sample return
mission to collect cosmic
dust and return the sample
to Earth. On July 3, 2007 a
second mission was
approved to revisit the
comet Tempel 1.

The Jet Propulsion


Laboratory (JPL) facility
will produce the aerogel for
the STARDUST mission and
provide well controlled Eureca. Aerogel is 1,000 carrot-shaped track up to
media properties and 200 times its own length, as
purity. Silica aerogel it slows down and comes to
produced at JPL is a water a stop - like an airplane
clear, high purity silica setting down on a runway
glass-like material that and braking to reduce its
can be made with bulk speed gradually. Since
density approaching the aerogel is mostly
density of air. It is strong transparent - sometimes
and easily survives launch called blue smoke -
and space environments. scientists will use these
times less dense than glass,
JPL aerogel capture tracks to find the tiny
another silicon-based solid.
experiments have flown and particles.
When a particle hits the
been recovered on Shuttle
aerogel, it will bury itself in
flights, Spacehab II and
the material, creating a
 Dunlop, the sports equipment company, has developed a range of squash and
tennis rackets strengthened with aerogel, which are said to deliver more power.

 Commercial manufacture of aerogel 'blankets' began around the year 2000. An


aerogel blanket is a composite of silica aerogel and fibrous reinforcement that turns
the brittle aerogel into a durable, flexible material. The mechanical and thermal
properties of the product may be varied based upon the choice of reinforcing fibers, the
aerogel matrix, and opacification additives included in the composite.
 Aerogel particles are also used as thickening agents in some paints and
cosmetics.
 The first residential use of aerogel as an insulator is in the Georgia Institute of
Technology's Solar Decathlon House where it is used as an insulator in the semi-
transparent roof.
 NASA also used aerogel for thermal insulation of the Mars Rover and space
suits.

SAVE THE IN FUTURE


ENVIRONMENT
Aerogel is described by scientists Aerogel is also being tested for
as the “ultimate sponge”, with
millions of tiny pores on its future bombproof housing and
surface making it ideal for armour for military vehicles. In the
absorbing pollutants in water. a
new version of aerogel has been laboratory, a metal plate coated in
designed to mop up lead and
mercury from water. Other
6mm of aerogel was left almost
versions are designed to absorb unscathed by a direct dynamite blast.
oil spills.
It can withstand a direct blast of 1kg
Scientists are optimistic that it of dynamite and protect against heat
could be used to deal with
environmental catastrophes such from a blowtorch at more than
as the Sea Empress spillage in
1996, when 72,000 tons of crude 1,300C.
oil were released off the coast of
Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire.

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