Since its introduction in 1931, aerogel has been one of the most eye-catching materials in the field of materials. Its density is extremely low; most aerogels do not exceed 3mg/cm³, making them the lightest known solids. If you put it on top of the flower, it won't bend the stamens. Its structure is a porous grid, the pore size is very small, up to the nanometer level, high porosity, the pores are filled with gaseous dispersion medium, which makes the structure evenly distributed, thereby improving its performance. This unique structure gives it excellent performance: very low thermal insulation coefficient, very low sound propagation speed, very high fire resistance, very strong thermal insulation performance, etc., this series of excellent performance makes it widely used in many fields. There are many types of aerogels, their properties are increasingly optimized, and the processing methods are not complicated.

Principle of aerogel insulation

The aerogel's unique structure makes it have excellent thermal insulation properties. We have aerogels all around our Zhu Rong rover. When Tianwan-1 landed, the ambient temperature was as high as 1,000 ° C. However, just 10mm of aerogel can adapt it to the environment around Mars. Even under the extreme environmental conditions of -130 ° C, the rover can work normally under the protection of aerogel.

There are three main ways of heat transfer: heat convection, heat radiation and heat conduction. All three of these methods play a key role in the insulation of aerogel. Its unique structure makes it have no convection effect, infinite baffle effect and infinite path effect.

No convection effect: the aperture of aerogel is mostly below 50nm, and the aperture is at the nanometer level, and the aperture is smaller than the free path of air. In this way, the air loses the ability to flow freely and can only be attached to the stomatal wall, the air can not flow freely, and the convection phenomenon can not occur.

Infinite thermal diaphragm effect: Although the pores of the aerogel are extremely large, the pores are scattered so that there is no "through hole". This minimizes the amount of heat transmitted by thermal radiation. Special anti-radiation material can block radiation heat transfer more effectively.

Infinite path effect: heat can only be transferred along the hole, infinite holes make the path of heat transfer infinitely long, so that the transfer of heat tends to the lowest limit.

Silica aerogel is the best insulation material at present, and the insulation effect of its insulation felt is 2-8 times that of traditional insulation materials. Therefore, when the same degree of insulation effect is achieved, the use of silica aerogel insulation felt is significantly reduced. Another obvious advantage of aerogel is its long service life, which is 4 times that of other thermal insulation materials. Because the hydrophobic rate of aerogel can reach more than 99%, it can ensure the stability of its structure, the internal distribution of the material is uniform, and the insulation effect is good. These are the key factors that make aerogel an excellent thermal insulation material.

Aerogel application

As a material with excellent performance, aerogel is widely used and flexible in aerospace, petrochemical, military, construction, transportation, battery and other fields. With the continuous growth of market demand, its cost-effective, has a huge market potential. In the petrochemical field, there are many links involved, and the equipment pipelines are complex and huge, such as distillation towers, deep-sea pipelines, storage tanks, reaction pipelines, LNG pipelines, etc. In these links, there will be high-temperature steam, thermal oil and other links, and the space occupied by the equipment is also large. In order to increase efficiency in a limited space, the design of the pipe needs to be intricate.

In this case, it is appropriate to consider the use of aerogel as a thermal insulation material. The excellent insulation effect of aerogel can significantly reduce heat loss during transportation, which is crucial for the petrochemical industry. In addition, the aerogel material is light and thin, which can effectively reduce the weight of the equipment while saving space. These properties make aerogel an ideal choice in the petrochemical field.

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