Saturday, May 27, 2006
I Want Some
Check out this material, “aerogel,” developed by JPL a few years ago. It is 98% air, but fairly strong and feels like styrofoam to the hand. Besides being the lightest material in the world, it is also very expensive. Too bad for artists, I would love to make something out of this stuff - a physical hologram looking form. Whats not to like? It was developed for NASA’s space shuttles to capture fragments coming off comets, but it sure has a lot of aesthetic appeal as well.
posted by cjagers at 12:17pm
7 Comments Add your own
1. José | May 30th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Aerogel is also now becoming a very common building material. Not structural, rather for insulation. Its thermal properties are quite remarkable.
ps_i’m an old smu collegue, heard you had this weblog. good to see what you’re up to.
2. chris | May 30th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Nice to here from you.
I heard aergel does not conduct heat - so perfect for insulation…. but I thought it was expensive? Insulation isn’t commonly so pricy.
3. José | May 31st, 2006 at 10:51 am
It is expensive… However companies like Kalwall have managed to create a process where an aerogel is captured in an aluminum framed panel. I am under the impression that it exists in a somewhat gaseous state. But as there are proprietary (sp?) trade secrecy issues I have yet to get the full scoop. you can read up at: http://kalwall.com/nano5.htm
The downfall unfortunately is that infiltration occurs at the aluminum joints. Thus, while the aerogel panel portion can boast an r20, at the edge of the panel (the frame) a great deal of conduction occurs, since metal despite its width does not produce as much thermal inertia. As to aerogel and its plastic applications, i have held a few pieces and they are super light. In its solid state it looks a lot like rubber. And allegedly you could blowtorch it while still holding it. If you were to make something of it then it seems best to capitalize on these things of performance rather than a static composition. Like it might be interesting to make a module that could fit a person and toss it in molten lava…?
4. Blue Crab Boulevard &raqu&hellip | August 20th, 2007 at 11:00 am
[…] UPDATE: Good heavens, this is why they call the material "frozen smoke". Very cool looking substance! There are also several companies working on commercializing the product. Aspen Aerogels is one of them. This company sells Aerogel samples to the public but is currently out of stock. (Dang it!) […]
5. Mark Lucas | August 21st, 2007 at 12:29 am
Is the military looking at this to coat armored vehicles and protect them against IED’s?
6. croakes | August 22nd, 2007 at 8:40 am
Sorry guys but aerogel was actually discovered around 1931, not ‘by NASA a few years ago’. NASA started looking at it about 10 years ago, refined it and used it for the project of collecting debri from a comet tail. It was invented over a dare in a science lab to take a gel and replace the liquid in it with a gas. Got nothing to do with fireworks which is what I do but thought I would throw my two bits in.
7. Normand Vera | May 27th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
If only more than 71 people could hear this!
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