Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Journal of Materials
Volume 2014, Article ID 127049, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/127049

Review Article
Aerogels as Promising Thermal Insulating Materials:
An Overview

Prakash C. Thapliyal and Kirti Singh

Organic Building Materials Group, CSIR-Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee 247667, India

Correspondence should be addressed to Kirti Singh; [email protected]

Received 11 January 2014; Accepted 11 February 2014; Published 27 April 2014

Academic Editor: Iwan Kityk

Copyright © 2014 P. C. Thapliyal and K. Singh. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

Aerogels are solids with high porosity (<100 nm) and hence possess extremely low density (∼0.003 g/cm3 ) and very low conductivity
(∼10 mW/mK). In recent years, aerogels have attracted more and more attention due to their surprising properties and their existing
and potential applications in wide range of technological areas. An overview of aerogels and their applications as the building
envelope components and respective improvements from an energy efficiency perspective including performance is given here.
This overview covers thermal insulation properties of aerogels and studies regarding structural features which will be helpful in
buildings envelope. The improvements of thermal insulation systems have future prospects of large savings in primary energy
consumption. It can be concluded that aerogels have great potential in a wide range of applications as energy efficient insulation,
windows, acoustics, and so forth.

1. Introduction conductivities at ageing. In addition to the product specific

parameter of the change of the thermal conductivity, mean
Short supply, limited availability, and increasing energy costs temperature and water absorption are also other important
all around the world emphasize the need for immediate influencing factors.
energy conservation in both oil rich and oil producing coun- As per IUPAC, aerogel is defined as a gel comprised of
tries. An effective way towards saving energy is to improve a microporous solid in which dispersed phase is a gas [1].
the thermal insulation of buildings especially in hot climates Aegerter et al. defined aerogels as gels in which the liquid
where the energy demand for cooling by air conditioning has been replaced with air, with very moderate shrinkage of
is comparatively higher. In addition to the need for energy a solid network [2]. Aerogel is basically a synthetic porous
saving, high insulating materials are further justified by ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid
improved comfort levels and increased building life. Thermal component of the gel has been replaced with a gas; for
characteristics depend largely on the thermal conductivity of example, graphene aerogels are so light that they can rest
the cell walls and the cell matrix, as well as radiation and on top of a grass leaf. The combination of high porosity and
convection, with the cell matrix being the most significant extremely small pores provides aerogels with their extreme
factor in determining the overall heat transfer characteristics. properties: solid with extremely low density and low thermal
Thermal properties of some commonly available insulating conductivity [3]. Aerogels are sometimes also known by
materials are given in Table 1. different names such as frozen smoke, solid smoke, solid air,
Thermal conductivity varies with time due to changes or blue smoke owing to translucent nature and the way light
in the composition of the cell matrix. The ambient air and scatters in the material [4]. Typical structure of an aerogel is
external building surface temperatures in hot climates of shown in Figure 1.
Asia and Africa are much higher than in cold climates Aerogels together with vacuum insulation panels are one
of a Australia, Europe and America, temperature of 38∘ C of the new promising high performance thermal and acoustic
should be taken into account while calculating thermal insulation materials for possible building applications and
2 Journal of Materials

Table 1: Commonly available thermal insulation materials.

S. number Material 𝑅-value (per inch) Green Flammable Remark

1 Mineral wool 𝑅—3.1 Yes No Does not melt or support combustion
2 Fibreglass 𝑅—3.1 Yes No Does not absorb water
3 𝑅—4 No Yes Is difficult to use around imperfections; can become
Polystyrene (EPS)
costly
4 Polyurethane foam 𝑅—6.3 No Yes Makes a great sound insulator
5 Cellulose 𝑅—3.7 Yes Yes Contains the highest amount of recycled content

SiO2

Hole diameter
50–60 nm

Particle diameter
2-3 nm

(a) (b)

Figure 1: Nanometer scale particles and pores in an aerogel. (a) Network architecture of an aerogel [77]. (b) Electron micrograph of a silica
aerogel [78].

Table 2: Commercial aerogel products. Aerogels are typically characterized by low density solid,
low optical index of refraction, low thermal conductivity, low
S. number Product Applications References speed of sound through materials, high surface area, and low
dielectric constant.
(i) Pellets, composites In this paper authors gave an overview of aerogels and
(ii) Day lighting applications their applications as the building envelope components and
1 Cabot [73, 74]
(iii) Oil and gas pipeline insulation respective improvements from an energy efficiency perspec-
(iv) Cryoinsulation tive. This covers thermal insulation properties of aerogels and
(i) Construction materials studies regarding structural features which will be helpful
Aspen (ii) Flexible blanket insulation in buildings envelope. This overview is presented in two
2 [74–76] parts: firstly, the general discussion of aerogels regarding how
aerogels (iii) Oil and gas pipeline
(iv) Aerospace, apparel they have such a high thermal quality and what are their
physical properties which will be useful in making insulating
(i) Vacuum insulation panels
materials and secondly, their remarkable properties due to
(ii) Shipping containers
3 Nanopore
(iii) Refrigeration
[74] extraordinary physical and chemical structure of aerogels.
(iv) Apparel

2. Aerogels
The passage of thermal energy through an insulating mate-
are currently the main market for aerogels, whereas other rial occurs through three mechanisms: solid conductivity,
applications such as absorbents, shock absorbers, nuclear gaseous conductivity, and radiative (infrared) transmission.
waste storage, batteries, and catalysts are also possible [5–13]. The sum of these three components gives the total thermal
A list of commercial available aerogels with their trade names conductivity of the material. Solid conductivity is an intrinsic
is given in Table 2. property of a specific material. The improvement of thermal
Journal of Materials 3

resistance of the building envelope can be achieved by for application as photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells
decreasing the thermal conductivity. with power conversion efficiency improvement of 16% [19].
Fricke et al. observed that both the solid conductivity Sol-gel derived silica has found tremendous applications as
and the gas conductivity were proportional to the density as a biocompatible scaffold for the immobilization of cells. A
shown below: new method for rapid, reproducible, and sensitive detection
of rhizobia using aerogels has been reported for the first time
𝜆 gas ∝ 𝜌−0.6
(1) [20].
Thermal insulation properties of aerogels are closely
𝜆 solid ∝ 𝜌1.5 .
related to their acoustic properties too. The acoustic prop-
Hümmer et al. using these relations derived the following agation in aerogels depends on the interstitial gas nature
relation for the radiative conductivity, which is a relative and pressure, density, and more generally the texture [21].
equation for the thermal conductivity of opacified silica Different applications of aerogels are given in Figure 4.
aerogels:

𝜌 1.5 𝜌 −0.6
3. Classification of Aerogels
𝜆 total (𝜌) = 𝜆 solid,0 ( ) + 𝜆 gas,0 ( )
𝜌0 𝜌0 Aerogels can be classified on the basis of the following [22].
(2)
𝜌 −1 𝑇 3 (a) On the basis of appearance
+ 𝜆 rad,0 ( ) ( ),
𝜌0 𝑇0
(i) Monolith
where 𝜌 (kg/m3 ) is the density; 𝜆 total , 𝜆 gas , 𝜆 solid , and 𝜆 rad (ii) Powder
(W/m.K) are the total conductivity, the conductivity for gas (iii) Film/felts
conduction, the conductivity for solid conduction, and the
radiative conductivity, respectively; 𝑇 ( 0 K) is the tempera- (b) On the basis of preparation methods
ture, and the index 0 means that parameters are related to a
reference material from an aerogel [14]. (i) Aerogel
Aerogel is made of more than 90% of air, having extremely (ii) Xerogel
low weight, transparency, and excellent thermal conductivity. (iii) Cryogel
Aerogel is an ideal material for thermal insulation due to (iv) Other aerogel-related materials
all these properties [15, 16]. Also their high visible solar
transmittance (𝑇vis ) is desirable for application in windows. (c) On the basis of different microstructures
Further decrease in thermal conductivity of aerogel can be
observed if evacuated below 50 hPa; thermal conductivity (i) Microporous aerogel (< 2 nm)
decreased because of elimination of pore gas. Superinsu- (ii) Mesoporous aerogel (2-50 nm)
lations with extremely low thermal conductivities can be
(iii) Mixed porous aerogel
implemented with evacuated highly porous powder, fiber, or
gel spacers. Due to the Knudsen effect, thermal conductivity (d) On the basis of chemical structure
can become lower than that for the still air, that is, even less
than 25 mW/mK [17]. (i) Oxides
For example, silica aerogel is a highly porous material (ii) Polymers
with pore diameters in the range of 10–100 nm. The porosity
is more than 90% with a thermal conductivity lower than (iii) Mixed
that of air, which makes these aerogels a highly insulating (iv) Hybrid
material. The space not occupied by solids in an aerogel is (v) Composite.
normally filled with air (or another gas) unless the material is
sealed under vacuum. These gases can also transport thermal 4. Preparation -of Aerogels
energy through the aerogel. The pores of silica aerogel are
open and allow the passage of gas through the material. Different type of aerogels can be prepared using alumina,
The final mode of thermal transport through silica aerogels chromium, tin oxide, and carbon, but preparation of silica
involves infrared radiation [14]. Soleimani Dorcheh and based aerogel is comparatively easier and reliable. Aerogels
Abbasi reported the synthesis of nanostructured silicon based are synthesized via a sol-gel process consisting of three main
transparent aerogels with pore diameter 20–40 nm [18]. steps [Figure 3].
Water molecules do not interact strongly with the
hydrophobic aerogel pore walls and therefore will not lose (1) Gel Preparation. Solid nanoparticles grow crosslink and
much energy in colliding with the wall and the progress of finally form a three-dimensional solid network with solvent
these molecules will not be significantly slowed. Accordingly, filled pores. To begin with a gel is created in solution and
the aerogel possesses high breathability, that is, high perme- then the liquid is carefully removed to leave the aerogel
ation selectivity between water vapor and agent vapors. Tita- intact; initially the creation of a colloidal suspension of solid
nia aerogels demonstrated an excellent mesoporous structure particles known as a “sol” takes place; for example, silica gels
4 Journal of Materials

are synthesized by hydrolyzing monomeric tetrafunctional Crack-free silica aerogels can also be obtained via solvent
and trifunctional silicon alkoxide precursors employing a exchange and resulting surface modification of wet gels using
mineral acid or a base as a catalyst [23, 24]. There are either isopropyl alcohol, trimethylchlorosilane, or n-hexane
many ways to create silica based sol gels. One is by mixing solution [32]. The physics and chemistry involved in the
tetraethoxysilane Si(OC2 H5 )4 with ethanol and water to synthesis of aerogels are detailed in the literature on aerogels
make it polymerize and thus producing a water based silica [18, 23, 33–37].
gel as shown in (3). A solvent, such as methanol, is used to For dense silica, solid conductivity is relatively high (a
extract and replace the water [25]: single pane window transmits a large amount of thermal
energy). However, silica aerogels possess a very small (∼1–
Si(OCH2 C3 )4 (liq.) + 2H2 (liq.) 10%) fraction of solid silica. Additionally, the solids that are
(3) present consist of very small particles linked in a three-
󳨀→ SiO2 (solid) + CH2 CH3 OH (liq.) dimensional network with many “dead-ends.” Therefore,
thermal transport through the solid portion of silica aerogel
occurs through a very tortuous path and is not particularly
(2) Aging of the Gel. It provides strength to the structure of effective [38]. Use of methyltrimethoxysilane coprecursor
gel. The gel prepared earlier is aged in its mother solution makes the aerogel hydrophobic and makes it able to hold
[26]. This aging process strengthens the gel, so that minimum water droplets on the surface [39]. Porosity of silica aerogels
shrinkage occurs during the drying step [27]. After gelifica- was determined by helium pycnometry using the following
tion, the gel is left undisturbed in the solvent to complete the formula and was found to be 1900 kg/m3 [40]:
reaction. After completion of reaction the aerogel product
𝜌𝑏
is formed. Inorganic aerogels can be prepared via sol-gel Porosity (%) = (1 − ), (4)
processing, a technique which requires alkoxides or metal 𝜌𝑠
salts in alcoholic or aqueous solutions, and subjecting to
where 𝜌𝑏 is the bulk density and 𝜌𝑠 is the skeleton density.
supercritical drying.
The hydrophobic aerogels have also been obtained via
(3) Drying. The solvent has to be removed whilst preserving coprecursor method pioneered by Schmidt and Schwertfeger
the solid aerogel network. This can be done either by super- [13]. Hydrolysis and condensation rates of all the coprecur-
critical drying or at ambient conditions. Aerogel materials sors were observed to be slower than that of TEOS because the
are typically prepared by removing the solvent contained in former contains one or more nonreactive alkyl/aryl groups,
a gel matrix by extraction in a supercritical fluid medium. which are nonhydrolysable, and a three-dimensional solid
This can be accomplished by bringing the gel solvent system network is achieved as per the following chemical reaction:
above its critical temperature and pressure and subsequently C2 H5 OH
relieving pressure above the critical temperature until only n Si(OC2 H5 )4 + 2H2 O 󳨀󳨀󳨀󳨀󳨀󳨀󳨀→ SiO2 + 4n C2 H5 OH
vapor remains. Oxalic Acid
Alternatively, the gel solvent system can be extracted (5)
from the wet gel with an appropriate solvent. Liquid carbon
dioxide is the most popular extraction solvent because it is When sufficient amount of TEOS has hydrolyzed, the silyl
inexpensive and has a relatively low critical temperature and groups of the coprecursor get attached to the silica clusters
critical pressure [28–31]. as per the following chemical reactions:

OH O
Si OH + (OCH3 )3 Si CH3 Si O Si CH3 + 3CH3 OH
OH O
H H

Si OH + Cl Si CH3 Si O Si CH3 + HCl (6)

CH3 CH3
OH O
O Si OH + (C2 H5 O)3 Si O Si O Si + 3C2 H5 OH
OH O

As the silica clusters get attached to nonhydrolysable hydrophobic. Hydrophobicity of aerogels will increase with
organic groups (silyl) on their surfaces, the aerogels become the numbers of alkyl/aryl groups attached to the surface [41].
Journal of Materials 5

104 103
102 102
101 MTES/TEOS = 0.5
100
100
98
Weight (%)

99

Weight (%)
96 98
94 97
96
92 PTES/TEOS = 0.5
95
90 94
88 93
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Temperature (∘ C) Temperature (∘ C)
a-TGA a-TGA
b-DTA b-DTA
(a) (b)

Figure 2: TGA and DTA analyses of the hydrophobic silica aerogels. (a) PTES/TEOS = 0.5. (b) MTES/TEOS = 0.5 [79].

the addition of R to the synthesis mixture resulted in

Precursors
increased values of surface area, mesopore volume, and mean
diameter, while simultaneously maintaining the ion exchange
Hydrolysis capacity of the wet gel [43, 44].
In the TG-DTA of some of the silica aerogel samples
Sol there is rapid increase in the weight loss of hydrophilic silica
aerogels at 50–100∘ C due to evaporation of trapped H2 O
Condensation and alcoholic groups from hydrophilic silica aerogels which
(gelation) were produced by the condensation reactions of Si-OH and
Si(OC2 H5 ) groups, whereas the percentage of weight loss is
Gel negligible up to the temperature of thermal stability in case
of hydrophobic aerogels [42].
Ageing The effect of heat treatment on the hydrophobicity and
Evaporation Extraction of solvents specific surface area has been also investigated by sev-
eral researchers. The results of these studies indicate that
(drying)
hydrophobicity of silica aerogel decreased with increasing
Xerogel Aerogel the heating temperature to 350∘ C. On further increasing
the heating temperature to 500∘ C, silica aerogel becomes
Figure 3: Distinct step of aerogel production [80]. completely hydrophilic (Figure 2). Some results for MTES
coprecursor based aerogels show that the hydrophobicity of
the silica around 573 K corresponding to oxidation of aerogel
In case of organic aerogels derived from the sol-gel could be maintained up to 350∘ C [45, 46].
polymerization of resorcinol with formaldehyde, thermal
conductivity components are clearly correlated with the aero- 5. Structural Features
gel structure; that is, the solid conductivity can be determined
by the porosity and connectivity between the particles while Aerogels have an unusual combination of high porosity and
the gaseous conductivity can be influenced by pore size small pore size, making porosity characterization by conven-
and mass specific infrared absorption of the building units tional techniques, such as mercury intrusion, thermoporom-
influences radiative transport [42]. etry, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption, very difficult. All
Polymer aerogels were prepared from mixtures contain- these techniques are based on the application of capillary
ing a fixed stoichiometric amount of formaldehyde and vary- pressures on the aerogel network, which may cause large
ing proportions of resorcinol (RF) and 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic volumetric compressions, leading to incorrect values for pore
acid (DHBAF) with the objective of combining the advan- size and volume [27]. Aerogels are characterized with a very
tages of high mesopore volume and solids content of RF aero- low permeability which can be explained in terms of pore
gels with the ion exchange capacity of DHBAF aerogels, and size suitable for transport of water vapours/gases but not
results show that the aerogel properties vary systematically for water molecules [46]. Some aerogels such as carbon
as the synthesis conditions are changed. It was found that aerogels can be obtained in the form of monoliths, beads,
6 Journal of Materials

Electronics
Chemistry
∙ Sensors
∙ Catalysts ∙ Insulators
∙ Adsorbents Fillers
∙ Low 𝜀 materials
∙ Nanovessels ∙ Paints
∙ Extracting agents ∙ Varnishes
∙ Functional liquids

Insulation
∙ Thermal Aerogels
∙ Acoustic
Kinetic energy
absorbers
∙ Shock absorption
Agriculture ∙ Tank baffles
∙ Carrier materials

Pharmacy

Figure 4: Different applications of aerogels.

powders, or thin films and make them promising materials 6. Advantages of Aerogels
for application in adsorption and catalysis [47, 48]. Organic
polymer aerogels are important nanoporous materials and Aerogels are regarded as one of the most promising high per-
their nanopore structures can be modified by the chemical formance thermal insulation materials for building applica-
reactions. These properties enable carbon nanotube aerogels tions today. With a low thermal conductivity (∼13 mW/mK),
they show remarkable characteristics compared to traditional
potential improvement over current carbon aerogels for
thermal insulation materials. Also higher transmittances in
applications such as sensors, actuators, electrodes, and ther-
the solar spectrum are of great interest for the construc-
moelectric devices [49]. The porosity provides both molecu-
tion sector. Another advantage of aerogels is their visible
lar accessibility and rapid mass transport via diffusion and for transparency for insulation applications which will allow
these reasons aerogels have been part of the heterogeneous their use in windows and skylights which give architects
catalytic materials field for over 50 years. The high porosity and engineers the opportunity of reinventing architectural
and mesoscopic pore diameters of aerogel structures enable solutions [51]. For example, the low thermal conductivity,
the electrolyte to penetrate the entire aerogel particle [50]. a high solar energy, and daylight transmittance in mono-
An aerogel possesses the following characteristics [22]. lithic silica aerogel make it a very interesting material for
use in highly energy efficient windows [52]. For cryogenic
(1) Property characteristics systems, multilayered insulation (MLI) is the insulation of
choice. However, MLI requires a high vacuum for optimal
(i) Ultralow thermal conductivity effectiveness. Powder insulations such as glass microspheres
(ii) Ultralow refractive index and aerogel beads have shown promise at soft vacuums and
(iii) Ultralow dielectric constant have a structural advantage in that they are far simpler to
install and maintain [53, 54]. Due to porous structure and
(iv) High surface area low density, aerogels can trap space projectiles travelling with
(v) High refractive index hypervelocity speed (order of km s−1 ). NASA used aerogel to
(vi) Ultralow relative density trap space dust particles and for thermal insulation of space
(vii) Ultrahigh porosity suits [55–57]. One of the promising applications that promote
the development of high quality transparent silica aerogel was
the use of this low density material in physics as Cherenkov
(2) Structure characteristics
detector [58].
Our indoor environments are polluted by releasing many
(i) Gel-like structure on nanoscale coherent skele- pollutants like chloride from tap-water, VOCs from organic
tons andpores solvents, formalin from furniture and paints, SO𝑥 and NO𝑥
(ii) Hierarchical and fractal microstructure from incomplete combustion of gasses and many hydro-
(iii) Macroscopic monolith carbons, and so on. Airborne contaminants are responsible
for increasing some respiratory problems and allergies like
(iv) Randomly crosslinking network
asthma. The conversion of airborne contaminants into non-
(v) Noncrystalline matter. toxic compounds is an effective pathway for their removal and
Journal of Materials 7

to protect our environment. Aerogels can also be used in air 35

Thermal conductivity (mW/mK)

purification by removal of airborne contaminants and protect 30
our environment by pollutants [59]. Aerogels are potentially
more environmentally friendly than noble metal catalysts due 25
to the negative environmental impact associated with mining 20
and processing the metals [60].
Modification of aerogels is essential to achieve specific 15
functionality and this tailoring can start during the sol-gel 10
process either after gelation or after obtaining the aerogel.
5
This can be done via (a) surface functionalization of aerogels
for regulating the adsorption capacity and (b) applying a 0
polymeric coating on aerogel surface. Hybrid aerogels can 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 800
encompass the intrinsic properties of aerogels (high porosity Pressure (Torr)
and surface area) with the mechanical properties of inorganic Pure silica aerogel
components and the functionality and biodegradability of Silica aerogel + carbon black
biopolymers [61–63].
Figure 5: Thermal conductivity versus pressure curves for (i) pure
silica aerogel and (ii) single-step silica aerogel with 9% (wt/wt)
7. Limitations of Aerogels carbon black [70].

Widespread uses of aerogel materials are restricted at present

mainly due to their
expensive raw materials and supercritical drying are used
(i) High production costs, which prohibit commercialization. It is clear that for the large
(ii) Poor mechanical properties, scale commercial aerogel production cost and risk have to
(iii) Health issues. be reduced. Aerogels can only be used as building material if
we can utilize their highly thermal insulation properties with
Supercritical drying is the most expensive and risky aspect light weight and low cost.
of aerogel making process [64]. A highly desirable goal in There is little that can be done to reduce thermal transport
aerogel preparation is the elimination of the supercritical through the solid structure of aerogels. Lower density aero-
drying process. For example, Guo and Guadalupe have gels can be prepared (as low as 0.003 g/cm3 ), which reduces
succeeded in synthesizing a silica based aerogel from a the amount of solid present, but this leads to aerogels that are
metastable lamellar composite through cooperative interac- mechanically weaker. Additionally, as the amount of solids
tion between silica and surfactant species [65]. The surfactant decreases the mean pore diameter increases (with an increase
molecules used to generate pores can be removed from the in the gaseous component of the conductivity). These are,
silica network through conventional solvent extraction. The therefore, generally not suitable for insulation applications.
porous structure is stable during this procedure, in which Carbon is an effective absorber of infrared radiation and, in
no supercritical extraction is used [66]. Silica aerogels are some cases, actually increases the mechanical strength of the
very fragile but strength of silica aerogel monoliths has aerogel. At ambient pressure the addition of carbon lowers the
been improved by a factor of >100 through crosslinking the thermal conductivity from 0.017 to 0.0135 W/mK [Figure 5].
nanoparticle building blocks of preformed silica hydrogels The minimum value for the carbon composite of ∼0.0042
with poly(hexamethylene diisocyanate). These composite W/mK corresponds to ∼R30/inch. Hence, conclusion can be
monoliths are much less hygroscopic than native silica, and drawn that aerogels have great future potential in a wide
they do not collapse when in contact with liquids [67]. range of applications as energy efficient insulation, windows,
Aerogels are a mechanical irritant to the eyes, skin, acoustics, and so forth [41, 70, 71].
respiratory tract, and digestive system. Small aerogel particles Chiral mesoporous SiO2 (CMS) as shown in Figure 6
can potentially cause silicosis, and so forth, when inhaled and can be synthesized with amino acid block copolymers and
can induce dryness of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. their acoustically induced optical Kerr effects (AIOKE) were
Therefore, protective gear including respiratory protection, found very high compared to nonchiral SiO2 and there-
gloves, and eye goggles must be worn while handling aerogels fore CMS can be used in acoustically operated quantum
[68]. electronic devices [72]. Recently cellulose nanofibril (CNF)
aerogels with superior wet resilence and water activated shape
8. Conclusions recovery were fabricated without chemical crosslinking by ice
crystal templated self assembly of TEMPO oxidised CNFs
Paints and coatings can be used for thermal insulation of via cyclic freezing thawing method.Main challenge lies in
buildings and work has been done also in CSIR-CBRI [69]. the strengthening of aerogels either by crosslinking with
But aerogels are fast becoming alternate material of choice for cellulosic polymers or the incorporation of cellulose-based
thermal insulation due to their ultralow thermal conductivity. nanofibres. Other challenge is lowering the production cost
In the preparation of aerogels supercritical drying is the most of composite/hybrid aerogel materials via ambient drying and
effective process. In the conventional preparation of aerogels, continuous production technology.
8 Journal of Materials

(a) (b)

Figure 6: HRTEM images of chiral Ex-SiO2 -CBC, (a) at low and (b) at high resolution [72].

Conflict of Interests [11] K. Richter, P. M. Norris, and C. L. Chang, “Aerogels: applica-

tions, structure and heat transfer phenomena,” in Review on
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests Heat Transfer, V. Prasad, Y. Jaluria, and G. Chen, Eds., vol. 6,
regarding the publication of this paper. chapter 2, pp. 61–114, 1995.
[12] L. W. Hrubesh, “Aerogel applications,” Journal of Non-Crys-
Acknowledgment talline Solids, vol. 225, no. 1–3, pp. 335–342, 1998.
[13] M. Schmidt and F. Schwertfeger, “Applications for silica aerogel
The authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-CBRI, for his products,” Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, vol. 225, no. 1–3, pp.
continuous guidance and encouragement. 364–368, 1998.
[14] J. Fricke, “Thermal transport in porous superinsulations,” in
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