Hybrid aerogels made from biopolymers and silica are strong and extremely insulating
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - 07:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Airy, airier, aerogel: the sponge-like networks that make up these highly porous solids can consist of up to 99.98 % pores. The most common aerogels are based on silica and are most often used as insulation because of their unusually low thermal conductivity. The serious disadvantage of these materials is their fragility. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of Swiss and French scientists has now introduced a new class of hybrid aerogels made from silica and plant-derived pectins. The new materials have comparable thermal properties but are far more mechanically stable. In addition, they are made by an aqueous, "green" process from bioderived materials.