Hello, everybody. I have heard a lot of excitement about silica aerogels, and after hearing how much potential this material may have, I really wanted
some. UnitedNuclear.com sells aerogel in granular and monolithic cylindrical form, the latter being many times more expensive (29mmx7mm= $39.00!).
Granular aerogels are MUCH cheaper, $5.50 for 100 cc's. My question is, why is it so much cheaper to produce, and what could I do with this aerogel if
I decide to buy it? Thank you.
Diablo - 24-6-2012 at 20:28
Granular aerogel is not cheaper/easier to make, but aerogels and the hydro/alcogels that proceed them are very brittle and thus are easy to break.
Aerogel monoliths are considered more more attractive and thus sell for a lot more, especially if they are not cracked/flawed.
Considering the cost of granular aerogel, even though it could be used as a loose fill insulation, it would be far cheaper to buy aspen aerogel's
flexible aerogel insulation.
Yeah, I have seen a few videos on synthesizing aerogel, but the only thing is, I don't have TMOS or a supercritical dryer. I probably wouldn't save
money on making it, unless I needed large amounts because supercritical dryers cost upwards of $500 to build. (worse still, if I wanted to buy a used
cheap one, the lowest would be in the $10,000 range.)White Yeti - 10-7-2012 at 19:26
Aerogels are also used as filters, where granules are just as good as solid blocks in certain cases. I don't think there is anything more useful than
whimsical that you could do with granular aerogel.kristofvagyok - 11-7-2012 at 10:28
An interesting use of aerogels would be to put some platinum/palladium ect. on it's surface and use it as a heterogeneous catalyst. It would be easy
to make, it has ultra high surface (would be highly active) and it is not heavy (as Pd/BaSO4) so it wouldn't settle down to the bottom of your flask.Diablo - 11-7-2012 at 13:31
If you try this beware water can be destructive to aerogels.kristofvagyok - 11-7-2012 at 15:27
If you try this beware water can be destructive to aerogels.
PdCl2 is soluble in several organic solvents what won't effect the aerogel so much and it is not impossible to dry it from it.Diablo - 11-7-2012 at 17:11
Aerogel can be subcritically dried from hexane and maybe toluene so I would try those first. link to procedure http://www.aerogel.org/?p=1443
