The Blog

This week on The Critical Point, in our fourth installment of our continuing series “The People Who Reinvented Aerogel”, we sit down with Prof. Nicholas Leventis from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and learn about ultrastrong, flexible x-aerogels and metal aerogels–two new classes of materials that enable some very exciting technological possibilities.  X-aerogels are the first structural aerogels ever developed, and metal aerogels combine conductivity, catalytic activity, and high surface area.

Get the podcast here.

Greetings aerogel enthusiasts and a warm 2010 to you all. It’s been a busy couple months but we’re back in action with some new articles on how to make silica aerogel with TMOS (the procedure described in Episode 5 of the podcast), how to make carbon aerogels, how aerogels can be made without supercritical drying (subcritical drying), how to make subcritically-dried silica aerogels yourself, and an exciting podcast line-up, including:

• Prof. Nicholas Leventis on flexible, strong x-aerogels and new metal aerogels
• How to Make Silica Aerogel, Part 2: Supercritical Drying (at last!)
• Dr. George Gould from Aspen Aerogels on commercialization of aerogel insulation blankets
• Dr. John Reynolds from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on remediating toxic waste with aerogels
• Dr. Bryce Tappan from Los Alamos National Laboratory on combustion synthesis of nanoporous metal foams and explosive cryogels
• How to Build a Supercritical Dryer (Yes, You Can Too!)
• Prof. C. Jeffrey Brinker of Sandia National Laboratory and University of New Mexico, father of modern sol-gel chemistry
• Subcritical Drying of Silica Aerogel
• The elusive Dr. Debra Rolison of the “Department of Nanoarchitecture” at the Naval Research Laboratory on nanoarchitecture and aerogels for energy storage

Lots of good stuff coming up!  Get involved.

One more thing–we’re going to be translating Aerogel.org into other languages this year, starting with Spanish and Arabic.  Anyone with technical ability in either language who’s interested in helping, please leave a comment!

At long last we have posted fully illustrated instructions for how to use the supercritical dryer you build in the Make section. Check out Supercritical Drying with Liquid Carbon Dioxide Parts 1 and 2 under Make > Gel Drying Procedures and supercritically dry some aerogels today!

The “How to Make Silica Aerogel Part 2″ podcast will post soon.

A huge congratulations to Prof. Nicholas Leventis at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&T) on being named Curators’ Professor of Chemistry–an honor bestowed upon the best of the best in the University of Missouri system. Prof. Leventis is the inventor of x-aerogels, which are mechanically strong aerogels, as well as metal aerogels derived through sol-gel precursors.

Read all about it here.

In honor of Prof. Leventis’ accomplishment, we will be featuring an interview with him on this month’s episode of The Critical Point here on Aerogel.org.

Congratulations Prof. Leventis! You deserve it.

We’re excited to announce an upcoming e-seminar featuring Bart Kalkstein, General Manager of Cabot Aerogel and Jim Satterwhite, Global Business Manager of Cabot Aerogel, who will talk about Cabot’s Nanogel® product–a granular form of silica aerogel used as superinsulation and in daylighting (skylights).

The seminar will be held Wednesday, December 16 (next week!) at 11 AM EST (Boston time) and will takes the form of an audio broadcast accompanied by a slideshow, all accessible from your computer. Here’s a brief overview of what they’ll talk about:

Nanogel aerogel introduction - Bart Kalkstein

• Overview
• Market applications
• Recent advancements

Nanogel aerogel in daylighting applications - Jim Satterwhite

• How Nanogel is transforming architecture
• Performance benefits
• Natural daylighting
• Glazing technology advancements
• Overview of various daylighting systems
• Nanogel: A green building product

This event is brought to you by our partner IntertechPira, who put on the International Aerogels Conference in 2007 and the World Aerogels Summit 2008. Registration is cost $145. For those of you who can’t make the live broadcast, you can still register and view a recording of the event any time after.

Register here. Get a sample of Nanogel here.

Check it out! Great for those aspiring entrepreneurs and green technologists interested in learning about how aerogel is making a real impact in the world already.

This week on “The Critical Point” is the third installment of our continuing series “The People Who Reinvented Aerogel” featuring Prof. Stephanie Brock from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.  In this episode, Prof. Brock discusses the exciting world of aerogels made from quantum dots (also called “metal chalcogenide aerogels” or “chalcogels”) and how these strange new materials could revolutionize solar cells, catalysts, and production of hydrogen from water and sunlight.  Listen to it here.

Prof. Brock, who started out as a French major in college, also talks about the value of coming to science from a different perspective and the importance of working outside “the box”.

Quantum dot aerogels, discovered by Prof. Stephanie Brock, may change the way we think about energy production in the future (image courtesy Prof. Stephanie Brock)

This week’s podcast is the first in a two-part series about making silica aerogels–lab setup, mixing chemicals, gel processing, and supercritical drying. If you’re interested in making aerogels, this is a great place to start!

Next up on The Critical Point is Dr. Stephanie Brock from Wayne State University, who will talk about metal chalcogenide (quantum dot) aerogels, and then part two of how to make silica aerogels (supercritical drying).

Example of a silica aerogel you can make (recipe and photo courtesy Michael Grogan, University of Bath)

This week on The Critical Point, Dr. Alex Gash from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory talks about the “Gash prep”, that is, epoxide-assisted gelation of metal oxides. From colorful transition metal oxide aerogels liked rust-colored iron oxide aerogels and canary-yellow samarium oxide aerogels to explosive aerogels made of thermite, learn how this exciting technology has expanded the range of possible aerogel compositions to the rest of the periodic table!

Beta iron oxyhydroxide FeOOH aerogel (left) and iron oxide Fe₂O₃ aerogel (right)

A shout-out to do-it-yourselfer Szymon Bartuś from Poland who has recently constructed a supercritical dryer of his own (with a little help from Aerogel.org)! Szymon’s aerogel interests include making colorful metal oxide aerogels. Awesome awesome awesome work Szymon… can’t wait to see some aerogels!

We’ll have to get Szymon to do an interview for The Critical Point.

You too can build a supercritical dryer for making aerogels in the Make section.

Here’s a picture of his dryer:

Just posted a new Flavors of Aerogel article all about strong and flexible aerogels (yes, really!) including mechanically robust x-aerogels, Aspen Aerogels’ flexible thermal insulation blankets, and marshmallow-like silica aerogels made through reduced bonding.  Cool stuff.  Lots of pictures.