The search for the perfect insulator for construction reminds us of the Holy Grail: everyone claims to have it, but no one has been able to prove that it is the one… until now. A team of scientists on the other side of the Atlantic has come up with a material that will make you say goodbye to air conditioning. The best part? They only had to modify one that you use at home to decorate.
You have it at home to decorate, but it could be (and is) a perfect insulator.
The aerogel silica glazed tiles are a new material that is made up of silica aerogel in the form of glass blocks or bricks. The silica aerogel could be considered as frozen smoke, indeed, as it contains 95-99% air and its volume is filled up with the irregular porous structure of the solid silicon dioxide.
These features endow the aerogel glass wall with fantastic insulating quality despite that fact that it is a transparent structure. The fabrication of the entire glass brick, aerogel included, is made possible by the use of an air tight, two-layer glass structure.
The layer therefore becomes very porous and superbly heat-insulating in its properties; it consequently provides passage for light while simultaneously preventing heat transfer.
The contained air pockets in the aerogel therefore behave as a large number of military-grade shields that reflect infrared radiation and operate as perfect insulators against outside temperatures. This results in the aerogel glass shades being able to bear the post-monsoon coolness that is followed by heat gain during summer.
Here’s why aerogel blocks can be the insulation that construction needed
One of the most notable properties of aerogel glass bricks is that they are extremely lightweight, weighing around 1/10th as much as regular glass. This makes them much easier to transport and install compared to other insulation materials of the same thickness.
The lightweight nature also puts less strain on building structures. The ultra-fine inner structure of aerogel glass gives it unmatched insulating capabilities. With a thermal conductivity around 0.1 W/mK, aerogel glass bricks provide at least twice the insulation value of conventional insulation like fiberglass batts.
This high resistance to conducted and convected heat flow makes aerogel glass a powerful insulator. Unlike most other insulation which is opaque, aerogel glass bricks allow visible light to pass through them.
This gives unique options for daylighting in buildings. The translucent quality also opens up creative architectural designs using the bricks for interior partitions or facades. The light transmittance can be tuned based on application needs.
Construction does not wait: other sectors will be revolutionized by aerogel blocks
These aerogel glass bricks cannot only be utilized in the future but can enable an extraordinary extent of the use of aerogel bricks in buildings and in constructions as well.
Several promising areas where aerogel glass bricks could see expanded adoption include:
- Energy efficient and sustainable residential construction for people – Building and houses that use second-to-none energy and sustainable methods. Therefore, more people are interested to move into new homes and apartments. insulation.
- Reuse of old buildings – Aerogel bricks can be utilized to enhance the performance of thermal conduction in the older buildings reducing energy cost and at the same time gives the technology enough space to work on.
- Aerogel insulation could help us provide better and more efficient appliances, electronics products, containers, and others by integrating the material into their structure.
It is clear how this construction insulator contributes to mitigating the sector’s impact on the environment. What we would not have expected is that it is a material that you have probably decorated your home with. Either way, we hope this discovery puts it on the table for the buildings of the future.