Aerogels in the end is what material?

First, the definition of airgel:

airgel, also called xerogels, the chemical solution is reacted first to form a sol, gelling the gel and then obtained, in the gel was removed solvent a spatial network structure is obtained in filled with a gas, solid appearance was very low density (close to the air density) of a porous material. aerogels having ultra low density, nanoporous, characterized in that the ultrafine pore size and porous honeycomb structure are connected by polymeric chains interconnected together. pore size generally less than 100 nm, the size of the airgel particles is typically less than 20nm. It can be an organic material (such as polyimide, carbon, etc.), or a mixed material (such as a gel glass) be prepared from an inorganic material (such as silica, alumina, etc.).

Second, the airgel Overview:

airgel, is a new material having a nano-porous structure, by the United States in 1931 Kistler.S invention, when the mist is light blue Bluish. , also known as \”blue smoke\”, \”frozen smoke\”, a record 15 Guinness Book of records, displays a number of unusual properties, known as the magic to change the world of material in thermal, optical, electrical, mechanical, acoustic and other fields, included one since the 1990s the top 10 science and technology, is a dual-use technology has great application value. Aerogels are the lightest, the best insulation performance of the solid material is selected World Guinness Book of Records the world, a very low density aerogels properties, low thermal conductivity, high specific surface area, high porosity, was first widely used in high-technology aerospace, military and other industries, as China\’s economic transformation and upgrading and implementation of the national strategy for nano-materials, nano-materials airgel has gradually widely used in industry, construction, automotive and electronics industries. Airgel due to different components, mainly silica airgel, alumina airgel, zirconia, and carbon aerogels and the like. Currently, the insulation properties of silica airgel most spectacular, most mature technology, industrial development at home and abroad airgel mostly deployed around the silica airgel insulation applications, if not otherwise specified below, the alleged aerogels are silica airgel. Along with China\’s economic transformation and upgrading, energy saving policy continues to vigorously promote the implementation of China as well as nano-materials strategy for many years, airgel materials in recent years by the government, academia, business andWidespread concern in the investment community. Aerogels are one of China is gradually exhibited almost simultaneously with the world and has a strong high-tech and competitive products, in a sense, the development of China airgel industry, the development of industry in the world aerogels It will have more and more influence. Currently, the depth and breadth of research of Chinese universities and research institutions in the field of aerogels, perseverance Chinese enterprises in low-cost manufacturing airgel technology, are walking in front of the world. Perhaps in the future we will see Huawei has become a business in the field of aerogels, relying on technological innovation and cost-rattling in the world.

Third, the airgel classification:

airgel, according to the chemical nature of the matrix can be divided into four categories:

Inorganic aerogels:

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• 1, oxides (such as silica, alumina, titanium dioxide);
• 2, fluorides (such as magnesium fluoride, calcium fluoride);
• 3, carbides (such as silicon carbide, boron carbide);
• 4, nitrides (such as boron nitride, titanium nitride);
• 5, mixed oxides (e.g., titanium – oxide silicon, vanadium oxide – titanium dioxide).

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Organic aerogels:

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• 1, an aldehyde-based (such as resorcinol – formaldehyde, melamine – formaldehyde ……);
• 2, urea derivatives (e.g., urethane aerogels);
• 3, a polymer (such as polyimide, polymethyl methacrylate, polystyrene, polydicyclopentadiene);
• 4, carbon-based, comprising a carbon nanotube.

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Mixed airgel:

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• mixed organic and inorganic phase containing the airgel, the main organic phase, silicon dioxide aerogels rubber modified from.
• The silica / poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) ……

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Airgel Composite:

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• airgel composite material is made of two or more materials having different chemical and physical properties; matrix forming material (or continuous phase), other materials form a dispersed phase. Airgel composite, the airgel can be used as a base, it can be used as the dispersed phase.
• 1, the fiber-reinforced airgel;
• 2, other airgel composite.

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Fourth, the aerogels prepared:

Fifth, the characteristics of aerogels:

VI airgel insulation principle:

convection-free:

having pore diameters of the airgel is less than 70nm nanomaterials, air molecules in the pores lose the ability of a free-flowing, approximately in a vacuum state can not be heat convection.

endless shielding effect:

airgel pores nanoscale pores and having a low density airgel itself, in the airgel pores tends to be \”infinite\”, each hole wall They have the effect of heat shield, resulting in nearly \”infinite heat shield\” effect, the heat radiation to a minimum.

infinitely long loose path effects:

low density airgel, large surface area and volume of loose skeleton, there are an infinite number of nano airgel pores, solid heat airgel conductive material along the walls of the pores, the pores have an infinite number of wall constitute a \”loose infinitely long path\” effect, so that the solid thermal conduction capacity drops to near the lowest limit. aerogels insulating properties compared to other conventional insulation materials, The low thermal conductivity, thermal insulation obvious advantages, airgel material thermal conductivity variation with temperature small, traditional insulation materials as the temperature increases, the thermal conductivity changes greatly, heat insulation effect is deteriorated.

Seven domestic and international market analysis airgel:

1 Global.Airgel market conditions

Allied market research company in June 2014 released the report, the global airgel market value in 2013 of $ 221.8 million, estimated in 2020 to reach $ 1.8966 billion, over the forecast period ( from 2014-2020 compound annual growth rate) of 36.4%. With the airgel material exploration in new areas of application continuous improvement, the market expects the market power over time the growth will be further enhanced. It is understood that the United States Aspen company from 2008 to 2013 compound annual growth rate of 33.8%, Allied\’s report may be considered to be based primarily on the more conservative forecast Aspen American company performance situation, in fact, with the development of the Asia-Pacific market, especially in the future development of Chinese enterprises rise airgel, airgel industry will significantly speed up. According to research firm Freedonia report, in 2010, the global thermal insulation materials market estimated size of $ 32.1 billion, 6.3% annual growth rate in the future, to 2019 to reach $ 55.6 billion. The industrial equipment in the field and three molecules account for about one-third of the total share of the construction sector\’s share of total II. Airgel materials currently occupy the spire of the whole pyramid model of thermal insulation materials market, the current size of the entire thermal insulation materials market is almost negligible, in this regard that airgel industry is still in its early infancy, but also indicates that its future huge space for development. The biggest obstacle to expansion of the airgel market is the high price, once the cost of production airgel material can be significantly decreased, the market size will expand dramatically, product sales also expanded rapidly, and revolutionary alternative conventional insulating material. So airgel outbreak inflection point when? In fact with the airgel material prices continue to decline, currently in the field of industrial insulation, the use of total project cost of airgel material has been close to traditional insulation materials, but with energy-saving, saving significant space advantages, corrosion, and long service life . Nano Energy-saving thermal image data based on years of industry experience and judgment, the rapid development inflection point airgel is already quietly arrived, some of the leading technology companies in the airgel will develop explosive! Enter a whole airgel explosive industry growth phase is expected compound annual growth rate of more than 55%And in the next 10 years will soon replace traditional insulation materials, especially in the field of industrial and equipment, the replacement was faster in the next five to 10 years, could reach $ 19 to 17 billion per year scale.

2. Aerogels domestic market

domestic market started late, pre-main foreign airgel product sales, more expensive, marketing efforts also smaller in recent years as domestic airgel enterprises gradually increased, the strength continuously increased, costs have been declining, have been expanding, again thanks to the rapid expansion of domestic energy conservation policy implementation body and the amount of economic, airgel industry into the rapid development of the channel. 2014 domestic airgel production is around 8,500 cubic meters, about 1500 cubic meters of imported products, the market size of about 182 million yuan. As the aerogels process cost reduction and scale of the industry continues to expand, some new applications constantly developed, airgel market has become more sophisticated. China as the emerging economies, it will be faster than the international average level of the rapid increase in the growth market in the next few years will enter a rapid growth phase. 2015 is the Year of the mutant airgel domestic scale, with production capacity expected to reach 16,000 to 20,000 cubic meter (already in production mainly airgel companies are seeking expansion), the actual output of about 19,600 cubic meters of imported products about 1,000 cubic meters, expected market size of 330 million in 2020 will reach 3.716 billion yuan in 2015 to 2020 compound annual growth rate of about 61.1%. At present, the military field demand mainly in the aerospace, weapons and ships and other fields; civilian areas of petrochemicals, rail transport, power industry, underground mine rescue capsule and urban heat pipe network has formed a certain size of the market and continue the rapid growth, special clothing and tents, LNG pipelines, building energy-saving applications also began a small trial huge post-market. The country\’s new materials industry, \”second Five Year Plan\” pointed out that thermal insulation material output value will reach 120 billion. Expected to enter the \”Thirteen Five\” energy-saving environmental protection industry will continue to achieve rapid development. Hot as nanotechnology infer, 2015 to 2020 airgel material will obtain high-volume applications in the field of industrial and equipment, fully replace the traditional industrial insulation materials began in 2020, about 500 million share of the domestic market each year. Is expected to begin in 2020, airgel material under constructionBuilding area will begin large-scale applications, 2025 will fully replace traditional building insulation materials, domestic share market more than 100 billion annually.

eight, more mature market applications and high economical preparation of silica airgel, the current industry, construction industry, electronics, and more than 80% of silica aerogels as a skeleton nanoporous airgel glue line material prepared as follows:

the main properties of the airgel determined by nano-porous structure, typically by the sol – obtain the desired gel matrix and corresponding nanopore gel process, since the solvent inside the gel matrix presence of surface tension, under ordinary drying conditions will result in collapse of the skeleton, airgel core preparation technique is to avoid the drying process due to capillary forces resulting in nanopores structure collapse. correspondingly, to eliminate stress, generally can be taken from the following aspects: Depending on the drying process, supercritical drying process is divided into atmospheric and drying process two kinds, the other not yet achieved mass production techniques as well as vacuum freeze-drying, subcritical drying and the like. supercritical drying technology is the first to achieve the preparation of bulk airgel technology, more mature, is currently the domestic and foreign enterprises to adopt more airgel technology. Supercritical drying is intended by controlling the pressure and temperature of the solvent to reach its critical point itself during drying, to form a supercritical fluid in a supercritical state of the solvent without significant surface tension, thereby enabling the dried gel during skeletal structure remains intact. We have now achieved batch production techniques generally use carbon dioxide as the drying medium, referred to as supercritical carbon dioxide drying. Pressure drying process for preparing a new type of airgel, is currently the most active research and development with the greatest potential airgel batch production techniques. The principle is a hydrophobic group on the gel structure was modified to avoid the gel surface silanol groups bonded to each hole and increase elasticity, while a low surface tension liquid displacement gel had a high specific surface can be water or ethanol in a normally direct pressure and dried to obtain excellent properties of airgel material.

The following two techniques to do the analysis and comparison summary:

equipment investment: supercritical drying apparatus used for the core of the autoclave up to operating pressure is generally 7 ~ 20MPa, special equipment belonging to the pressure vessel, the device The system is more complex, operating and maintenance costs are also high, meshFormer domestic manufacturers have been able to provide complete sets of supercritical preparation equipment, but not much, the owners of bargaining power is weak. Atmospheric pressure drying technique using conventional equipment, eliminating the need relatively high pressure supercritical drying conditions, low investment in equipment, system equipment is relatively simple, because most chemical equipment can manufacturing units, the owners a strong bargaining power. Production costs: airgel production costs mainly in the silicon source, depreciation of equipment and energy consumption three. Silicon sources include sodium silicate and silicone. Silicone more expensive, but high purity, good process adaptability, both can be applied to supercritical drying process can also be applied to ambient drying, at home and abroad by supercritical drying technology companies are basically using silicone source. Cheap water glass, but a lot of impurities, impurity removal process more complicated, mainly used in atmospheric drying technology. Equipment depreciation, the result of higher supercritical drying technology and equipment investment, depreciation is higher than atmospheric pressure to technology. Energy consumption, supercritical drying system drying system power consumption is higher than atmospheric pressure, steam consumption aspects of the difference is small. Thus, in general the use of atmospheric drying technology production cost is lower than the supercritical drying. Performance: on silica airgel, the current pressure supercritical drying technology and drying technology to produce the product is no different to any significant or meaningful, supercritical technology can basically meet the specification, atmospheric drying process can be achieved. In terms of the preparation of non-silica airgel, supercritical drying process to mature a lot, but not mass production reports. Technical threshold: Relatively speaking, the production efficiency of supercritical drying technology, security, as well as process changes are a higher dependence on equipment system, if the equipment manufacturers to provide equipment more mature and reliable system owners into the relatively low technical threshold, which airgel is also a lot of new industry entrants to select one of the supercritical process reasons, but because of being more restricted. Lower investment threshold pressure drying technology and equipment, but has a high technical threshold, the combination of design and process optimization formulations have higher requirements, if the technology does not pass, not only production costs may be higher than supercritical, and even performance indicators We can not meet the requirements. expansion of space: as a special high-pressure supercritical drying device, if you want to expand the scale of production, fixed asset investment is huge, airgel in the future if you want to meet the huge market for building insulation, for example, to reach an annual output of 500,000 m3 (which is only the size of small and medium-scale enterprises of building materials), supercritical drying technology equipment into the billions, is not conducive to the airgel enterprises bigger and stronger. The pressure drying technology, with the expansion of the scale, will further improve the input-output ratio can be less investment for a larger production scale, and thus can adapt to the future needs of large-scale production. In addition, limited to the silicon source, the raw material cost reduction supercritical limited space, can increase productivity by optimizing the system, and the ability to receive a strong pressure and dried for cheap silica source optimization process may have more degrees of freedom, thus cost of ownership greater decline in space. Through the above analysis, I believe, rationality supercritical drying and atmospheric drying technology have their own advantages, are present. But as competition in the past ion technology and liquid crystal display technology and other fields, as both had equally matched, and now LCD technology has been fully win, over time, I believe, on the preparation of silica airgel production, often pressure drying technology will ultimately won a landslide victory.

Nine, airgel problem facing the development of

China began market-oriented application airgel material after 2000. Airgel was relatively simple products, mainly \”dusting\” airgel felt mainly used in thermal insulation of industrial pipelines and equipment. Suddenly, two decades have passed quickly, although the airgel is called \”an amazing material that can change the world\” high hopes, but it is embarrassing, and airgel product diversification and market application has not been very upgrade fast. \”Dusting\” is an airgel mat ** free service problems in the production process, it is difficult to be degraded after use and crop \”dust\” harmful to human health, inhaled, need or use fiberglass cloth wrapped composite laminated to normal use, process complex, high processing costs due to the problem, \”dusting\”, limiting the use of airgel in various industries, many industries want to take advantage of outstanding airgel insulation properties, However, due to environmental issues have to do stop hot like nanotechnology airgel face of the slow process of China\’s industrial development, how to deal with foreign airgel technology to break the blockade, ready to hit the road, the formation of a strong aerogels R & D team, the airgel is committed to high-end application development and product diversification airgel, airgel solve \”dusting\” problem, according to product application space requirements, breaking the traditional airgel mat thickness of partial thickness of the issue, the gas light and thin gel products, Applications to solve small spaces soaking the insulation problem, the airgel from a single application to the high-end consumer electronics industry, artificial intelligence, and medical flexible display. Nano airgel thermal imaging products with characteristics \”can not afford to powder\”, health and environmental protection, the advantages of easy to use, the product is part of a global initiative. Nano airgel thermal image development products: aerogels insulation film, insulation foam airgel, airgel insulation sheet airgel insulation coating airgel phase change thermal storage heat absorbing film products .

1 airgel insulation film:

through a special process, airgel thin film, solving the problem of consumer electronics soaking small spaces, protection of the weak heat insulating element can be controlled change the direction of heat conduction, improve product performance and service life. Airgel airgel insulation film not only solves the problem of \”dusting\”, while specific softer, lighter and more excellent thermal insulation properties, may be replaced Panasonic NASBISE airgel insulation mat, U.S. compartment GORE hot material, such as Japan Chiyoda insulation mats and other products, these foreign brands on the one hand expensive price Pleiades, plus the one hand, due to the \”dusting\” problem, when cutting and processing need to wrapping film complex process, die-cutting As the \”fall-off\” of the die-cutting plant cleanliness and health of employees are also affected. Airgel insulation film thermal imaging nanometer development, in addition to excellent heat insulation performance, the price is very competitive, only a third of the market price of foreign brands, greatly reducing customer acquisition costs, boost domestic application development airgel. Airgel insulation film by using the characteristics of low thermal conductivity airgel, low thermal conductivity to the product: 0.018- 0.022 W / (m .K), thickness: 100μm- 400μm, flexible web products meet round knife, knife other die-cutting process, can be used with the heat dissipating sheet composite graphite material, such as copper foil.

2 airgel insulation foam:

Novel high temperature resistance, fire-retardant insulation foam cushion multi-functional integrated nano airgel insulation foam insulation material is a new nanometer, help the electronics industry, new energy battery, the automotive industry and ship military industries to solve fire insulation, shock absorption aspects, noise reduction, weight reduction and other needs. [Ssredlist]

• low thermal conductivity: 0.024- 0.030W / (m K.)
• High temperature resistance: – 80 ℃ – 300 ℃
• Resistance to Permanent deformation: <10%
• Buffer Compression ratio:> 75%
• noise reduction: 0.085 – 0.095 NRC
• flame retardancy: Ul94- V0
• density: 0.04g / cm3

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3 airgel insulation sheet. :

airgel insulation sheet is a thermal image of nano airgel new product development, the biggest highlight is \”not afford to powder\” heat insulating effect more excellent than conventional airgel mat, die-cutting the flexible easy processing, . comply with FDA food grade health safety

4 airgel phase change thermal storage heat absorbing film:

open up other than graphite sheet, a copper foil, heat pipe heat sink material airgel insulation material the third thermal management materials and new solutions endothermic phase change thermal storage airgel film thermal management is a novel nano-material, from a value of the high heat capacity of the polymeric material nanoporous airgel combined, passed through a phase the electronic chip can endotherm were sharply variable-heat absorbed during storage, and the delay temperature, to eliminate or reduce the risk or down-crash devices may also be used as thermal protection materials sensitive component, through an endothermic phase change prevent heat transfer. Heat

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• a high heat capacity value> 200J / g
• Poly absorption delaying urgent grooming temperature – down or crash cancellation device

[123 ] reducing the surface temperature of the product – to enhance the thermal comfort of human body

may be fitted with heat dissipating materials

easy to die cut flexible web

[/ ssredlist] [123 ] airgel insulation coatings 5:

formulation unique, combined with the airgel high temperature aqueous resin powder, with the retention structures and nanoporous airgel insulation properties, also has excellent resistance to high and low temperature, easy construction, energy saving features. [Ssredlist]

1. Substrate is not limited, the device shaped parts or irregular surfaceWell insulation treatment, the substrate surface to achieve seamless integration, enhance thermal insulation effect.

• 2. After drying, to reduce or eliminate condensation, damp air performance is not affected, structural stability, corrosion-resistance.
• 3 achieve the same insulation effect, the thinner the coating, saving space and cost.
• 4. To prevent corrosion of the substrate under the insulation coating, having excellent durability and weather resistance.
• 5: reduce radiation heat, keeping the internal temperature is more stable, the outermost layer of low thermal conductivity, anti-scald, body comfort, environmental protection, without risk to health.
• 6: short construction period, so that at the same time greatly reducing equipment downtime to facilitate maintenance equipment, life of more than 10 years.
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