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Lightweight and Thermally Insulating Aerogel Glass Materials

Abstract

Glass represents an important and widely used building material, and crucial aspects to be addressed include thermal conductivity, visible light transmittance, and weight for windows with improved energy efficiency. In this work, by sintering monolithic silica aerogel precursors at elevated temperatures, aerogel glass materials were successfully prepared, which were characterized by low thermal conductivity [k ≈ 0.17–0.18 W/(mK)], high visible transparency (Tvis ≈ 91–96 % at 500 nm), low density (ρ ≈ 1.60–1.79 g/cm3), and enhanced mechanical strength (typical elastic modulus Er ≈ 2.0–6.4 GPa). These improved properties were derived from a series of successive gelation and aging steps during the desiccation of silica aerogels. The involved sol → gel → glass transformation was investigated by means of thermo-gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Strategies of improving further the mechanical strength of the obtained aerogel glass materials are also discussed.

Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Tao Gao
  • Bjørn Petter Jelle
  • Arild Gustavsen
  • Jianying He

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Community / Architecture, Materials and Structures
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2014

Published in

Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing

ISSN

0947-8396

Volume

117

Issue

2

Page(s)

799 - 808

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository