Industrial and civil fields
In the chemical industry, pipelines, furnaces and other equipment, it is common to use Si02 aerogel and its composite materials to replace traditional insulation materials for heat preservation, which can greatly reduce heat loss and improve heat utilization.
In the civil field, the use of Si02 aerogel with very low thermal conductivity as a thermal insulation material for cryogenic systems such as refrigerators can prevent the leakage of a large amount of freon gas contained in the material from destroying the atmospheric ozone layer, so as to protect the living environment of human beings. As a kind of refrigerated container transportation equipment, Si02 aerogel instead of rigid polyurethane foam has the advantages of low thermal conductivity, high strength, good stability and corrosion resistance, and can be used as insulation material for refrigerated containers. Aerogel thermal clothing and warm shoes have appeared in the U.S. market in the form of commodities, providing protection against the cold for polar exploration, cold sports, Arctic scientific research and cold area individual soldiers.
Energy efficient building field
At present, the main body of high-rise or super high-rise buildings mostly use steel structure, steel structure fire resistance is poor, such as do not take effective fire protection measures, once the fire, the structure is easy to be damaged. The use of Si02 aerogel thermal insulation composite material for fire prevention of steel structure can not only extend the fire prevention time, but also will not release harmful substances at high temperature. In addition, Si02 aerogel insulation can be used as an efficient insulation and noise reduction material due to its low apparent density and thermal conductivity and better high temperature resistance.
Special application field
For aerospace weapons, density is a key indicator to evaluate materials, and lightweight materials are of great significance to improve flight range. Aerogel materials are characterized by low density, high heat capacity and low thermal conductivity. The material has been used as insulation for the aircraft's black boxes, which record flight status data. In addition, it can also be used as a thermal insulation layer for various high-temperature fuel cells, thermal batteries, and lighting batteries. In the design of the "Mars Rover", NASA also used Si02 aerogel thermal insulation material as a thermal insulation layer to resist the ultra-low temperature of the Martian night.
Other applications:
1. Ideal acoustic delay or high efficiency sound insulation materials, as well as ideal acoustic resistance coupling materials for ultrasonic detectors.
2. In terms of optical properties, it can be made into visible light transparent and infrared opaque aerogel materials, the ratio of infrared and visible light annihilation coefficient reaches more than 100, and its refractive index is close to 1, and the thermal loss rate of silicon aerogel between vacuum window glass is reduced by 2/3 compared with the best window system at present.
3. Aerogels can be used as candidate materials for fusion freezing targets required for inertial confinement fusion for high-tech projects.
4. Aerogels have controllable nano-micropores with uniform pore size distribution and high porosity. Suitable material for gas filters.
5. Due to its low dielectric constant and adjustable dielectric constant, it can be used as a substrate material for new integrated circuits.
6. Use its high porosity as a biosensor, oxygen and carbon dioxide sensor and organic solvent adsorbent in water.
7. Nano-porous silica aerogels can also be used as additives in high-grade cosmetics, lubricants, paints, grinding pastes and so on.