Ultra-transparent airgel designed for better and more cost-effective solar collectors are designed

We may hear a lot of information about PV panels, solar collectors but also useful – these devices collect heat from sunlight for applications such as home heating. Now, MIT researchers have announced the development of a new material, it can make them cheaper than ever and more efficient. Currently, solar collector generally comprises a series of reflectors which focus sunlight onto a central collection means. The apparatus further comprises a transparent glass plate on top of a black heat absorbing material, having a vacuum in the space between them. Such an arrangement can be expensive and complicated, however, most of the accumulated heat may \”escape\” through out the glass panel. Taking into account that a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a silica gel Aerogels instead of a glass. Material sufficiently transparent, allowing a lot of sunlight through, but it also has a sufficiently high insulating value to keep the heat inside. When the research team at MIT winter outdoor temperature is below 0C test case containing airgel collector on a roof, the internal temperature of the endothermic material capable of maintaining the 200C. Aerogels from \”abundant and cheap\” component composition, the initial rapid drying is a liquid. Leaving behind a material mainly consisting of air, due to the rapid drying process, the space between them is very small silica particles. This quality to make it more transparent than other airgel insulation, light transmission rate of over 95% – in contrast, prior to the development of the airgel can be achieved only about 70%. Now researchers hope that once the further development of the technology, the solar collector in conjunction with airgel may be used to heat the water pipe, and pump water through the domestic heating system. However, before this, the need to reduce the cost of drying process – there is a need for a dryer called a critical point of special equipment, it is not suitable for commercial scale production of the collector. The researchers recently published a paper on the study on \”ACS Nano\” magazine.