The Blog

We’ve been working hard to get things up and running over the past couple months and, suffice it to say, it has taken longer than we expected! But we think you’ll enjoy what’s here so far. Coming up this month:

• Podcast #1: Welcome to Aerogel.org
• Flexible and high-strength aerogels
• Recipes for making colorful lanthanide oxide aerogels
• A complete image database under the See section (we’ve just got a couple test images up right now)
• A working materials property database
• Instructions on how to actually use the supercritical dryer you build in the Make section!

In the mean time, might we suggest reading up on How Aerogel is Made, Silica Aerogels, and Metal Oxide Aerogels. And for you aerogel connoisseurs out there, check out the recent discovery of Metal Aerogels.

Just a heads up to let you know Aerogel.org is close to its emergence from beta phase. The complete encyclopedia, the first podcast, and the first instructables will all be up by February. Sorry for the delay!

Greetings aerogel enthusiasts! You’ve stumbled upon the beta version of Aerogel.org, a new site for everything aerogel and more. Feel free to poke around but be advised that we’ll be under heavy construction for at least another month so stuff will look pretty beta for a while. So what can you expect? Aerogel.org will be the world’s most comprehensive resource on aerogels–an encyclopedic reference, podcast, news, instructables, media gallery, and discussion boards all in one place. Our philosophy is that nanotechnologies such as aerogel need to be better communicated to the public so that people can better understand and get involved in nanotechnology. The future is now–welcome to open source nanotech!

Cabot Corporation of Boston, MA, one of the world’s major aerogel producers, has announced it will release its TLD201 Nanogel^® aerogel matting coating in the United States. A matting coating is something applied to a surface to make it look dull (or matte). Cabot’s Nanogel materials are subcritically dried silica aerogel which are translucent but not clear. As a result, their materials tend to scatter light creating a diffuse appearance. Already available in Europe for several years for wood, metal, and other substrates, this coating also gives materials scratch resistance, resistance to water and corrosion, weatherability, increased flexibility, and decreased thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the coating is made from particles manufactured in a green manufacturing process, and the final product is actually also environmentally-benign. This is great to hear since aerogel materials and coatings have lots of potential for helping save energy in various ways, but only if the manufacturing process doesn’t offset it!

Read the article here