With the continuous progress of materials science, aerogel has gradually expanded from high-end fields such as aerospace and military industry to daily civilian fields due to its extremely low thermal conductivity, ultra-light weight and excellent heat and sound insulation performance. With the gradual reduction of manufacturing costs and the continuous optimization of processes, aerogel materials are being widely used in many civilian scenarios such as building insulation, clothing cold protection, home appliance insulation, fire protection, etc., showing huge market potential and application prospects. This article will focus on several aerogel materials that are widely used in the civilian field, and explore their performance advantages and practical application cases.
Content
2. Core civil application scenarios
3. Industrialization process and challenges
Aerogel is an ultra-light solid material with a nanoporous structure. Due to its extremely high porosity and special microstructure, it exhibits many unique properties. Its thermal conductivity is as low as 0.013-0.025 W/m·K, which is one of the solids with the lowest thermal conductivity at present, and has excellent thermal insulation effect. At the same time, the density of aerogel is extremely low, up to 3kg/m³, which is almost lighter than air. In addition, modern aerogel materials also have good hydrophobicity and stability, and can still maintain excellent performance in various complex environments, making it a focus of attention in the field of functional materials.
In recent years, with the advancement of the "dual carbon" goals and the guidance of green and low-carbon policies, aerogel materials have gradually expanded from the aerospace and military fields to the civilian market. Thanks to the cost reduction brought about by large-scale production and the optimization of core processes such as supercritical drying, the manufacturing technology of aerogel has become more mature and the application threshold has been continuously reduced. Today, aerogel is increasingly used in many civilian fields such as building insulation, household appliance insulation, functional clothing, etc., and has become an important new material to promote energy conservation and emission reduction and improve the quality of life.
2. Core civil application scenarios
1. Building Energy Saving
The application of aerogel in building energy saving has taken shape, especially in terms of thermal insulation and structural energy saving. In terms of wall and roof insulation, aerogel materials are gradually replacing traditional materials such as rock wool and polyurethane. Not only can the thickness be reduced by more than 50% without changing the thermal insulation performance, but it can also effectively reduce the heat loss of the building. According to the case of the petrochemical industry, the heat loss can be reduced by 34.6%. In the application of high-efficiency energy-saving windows, the use of aerogel glass interlayer technology can achieve a good balance between optical transmittance and thermal resistance performance, greatly reducing the air conditioning load. At the same time, aerogel is also used in the insulation layer of the floor heating system. Through the laying of thin layers, faster ground heating can be achieved, and the overall energy consumption can be reduced by up to 30%, which improves the energy efficiency of the floor heating system.
2. New Energy Vehicles
In the field of new energy vehicles, aerogel materials have become an important solution for power system safety and vehicle performance optimization due to their excellent thermal stability and lightweight characteristics. When applied to thermal protection of power batteries, aerogel can withstand temperatures exceeding 800°C, meeting the national safety standard of 5-minute thermal runaway delay in GB 38031-2020. Integrating aerogel composite materials in the roof and door frame structure can achieve significant lightweighting while improving the vehicle's endurance. In addition, aerogel is also used for internal insulation of charging piles, effectively preventing high temperature accumulation from causing component failures and improving the safety and stability of the charging system.
3. Outdoor equipment and functional clothing
The lightweight and efficient insulation advantages of aerogel in outdoor equipment make it an ideal functional material for extreme environments. In professional equipment such as polar expedition suits, a 1cm thick aerogel composite layer can achieve the insulation effect of traditional 5cm thick materials, greatly reducing the weight of clothing and improving wearing comfort. In terms of fire protection clothing, aerogel has excellent high temperature resistance and flame retardant properties, which can provide firefighters with safer protection in high temperature environments, effectively preventing thermal radiation burns and heat conduction injuries.
4. Home and daily necessities
Aerogel is gradually entering thousands of households and becoming an important material for household energy saving and safety improvement. For example, in refrigerators and freezers, the use of aerogel insulation layers can effectively reduce cold loss, improve insulation efficiency, and thus improve the energy-saving level of the product. In civil heating systems, aerogel materials are also widely used for pipe insulation, which can not only prevent the freezing and cracking of heating pipes in winter, but also maintain good thermal efficiency under thinner insulation conditions.
5. Emerging Potential Fields
With the continuous development of aerogel technology, its application potential in emerging fields continues to expand. In terms of heat dissipation of electronic equipment, aerogel is being used as chip backplane and thermal conductive film materials to help mobile phones, notebooks and other devices achieve more efficient heat dissipation control. In the direction of high-end residential and space technology transformation, aerogel insulation technology derived from space capsules has been transplanted into high-end buildings, providing aviation-grade thermal environment control and energy-saving solutions for residences, reflecting the development trend of "space technology serving people's livelihood".
3. Industrialization process and challenges
Although aerogel has significant advantages in performance, its industrialization still faces challenges in cost, technology and standards. At present, the price of aerogel is still 3-5 times that of traditional thermal insulation materials, which has become one of the main obstacles to large-scale application. However, with the optimization of process and the advancement of large-scale production, the cost is expected to drop by more than 60% in the future.
In terms of technology, although the atmospheric pressure drying process is expected to replace the high-cost supercritical drying, the stability and product consistency still need to be improved. At the same time, aerogel itself is relatively brittle, and its mechanical strength needs to be improved through composite technology to meet the needs of a wider range of applications.
In addition, there is a lack of systematic industry standards in the current civil field, especially in terms of building fire protection level and environmental protection testing. There is no unified standard. Establishing a sound standard system will be the key support for promoting the widespread implementation of aerogel materials.
In summary, the industrialization of aerogel is in an accelerated stage. Only by coordinating the cost control, technological breakthroughs and standard construction can its widespread application in the civil market be truly realized.
With the continuous growth of global demand for energy-saving and environmentally friendly materials, the aerogel market is entering a period of rapid development. According to forecasts, by 2025, the global aerogel market is expected to exceed US$3 billion, of which China's market share will exceed 40%, becoming the core force driving global growth. In the future, bio-based aerogel will become an important technical direction. New aerogel materials based on renewable resources such as cellulose and chitosan not only have excellent performance, but also are more in line with environmental protection and sustainable development trends.
At the same time, various favorable policies have provided a good soil for the widespread application of aerogel. Fiscal subsidies and energy efficiency standards in the field of green buildings have promoted high-performance insulation materials to replace traditional products; in terms of new energy vehicles, aerogel has become an important material for thermal management of power batteries because it meets national mandatory safety standards. On the whole, with the dual-wheel drive of technological progress and policy support, aerogel is expected to accelerate its popularization in multiple civilian scenarios and become an important representative of a new generation of high-performance functional materials.
Aerogel is moving from "black technology in the laboratory" to large-scale civilian use, achieving leapfrog development in the field of materials. With its excellent thermal insulation, lightweight and environmental protection performance, aerogel is becoming a strategic new material to support the development of key industries such as green buildings and new energy vehicles, and is of great significance to the realization of the "dual carbon" goals and sustainable development. In the future, to promote its full implementation, it is still necessary to collaborate and innovate among all parties in industry, academia and research, focus on cost control and breakthroughs in technical bottlenecks, accelerate the construction of a standard system, and help aerogel truly enter thousands of households and serve a green future.