A Malaysian scientist says she has discovered a cheap way to turn discarded rice husks into a high-tech material that could reduce electricity bills, protect buildings from bomb blasts and make airplanes and tennis rackets lighter.
Aerogel, the lightest solid known to man, was invented in 1931 by an American scientist, but its high cost has limited its use.
Halimaton Hamdan, a University of Cambridge-trained chemistry professor, says her process cuts the cost of producing aerogel by 80 percent, making it so affordable that it could become a commonplace material with widespread use…
The greatest potential lies in coating walls of homes with aerogel, Halimaton says, which could dramatically reduce the need for heating and air conditioning. Aerogel provides 37 times more effective insulation than traditional fiberglass, according to ICE Circle, a British nonprofit group that promotes new technologies to fight climate change.
Nicknamed “frozen smoke” because of its cloudy appearance, aerogel is made from silica, the basic ingredient in sand, and is 99 percent air by volume. The result is a nearly weightless and translucent material with a white powder that seems to float inside.
Bravo! Most folks in the scientific community know about aerogel. Its structural and insulating properties have always been exciting. The cost of producing it has been extremely frustrating.
FINALLY
I was wondering how much longer I was gonna have to lug around that iron tennis racket.
Halimaton Hamdan, I shall praise your name with every serve!
My understanding of Aerogel was also that it can be completely transparent (like glass), but only if it is formed in Zero Gravity. The hope was that windows could be made of this stuff, with huge insulation properties.
This pisses me off since I’m about to insulated my 90 year old home finally. Wish I could aerogel the whole damned thing. Of course, would probably be cheaper if I gold leaf the walls instead. Call me when I can insulate my whole home for $5k.
Two words:
Totally. Awesome.
Congrats, Professor Hamdan!
We should give thanks where it is due. Without god’s hand on Professor Hamdan’s shoulder, this would never have come about.
Oh, the professor discovered this on her own? OK.
Good job professor. The world is a better place today because of you.
Next on the agenda: transparent aluminum!
For building whale cages, John?
Already in the works!
Aluminum Oxynitride
#5 – Aye, Scotty.
#7, Nice find, Smartalix. Now if only it had the coefficient of expansion of Zerodur it could be applicable for extremely lightweight optical mirrors. I couldn’t find any info.
I looked into aerogel as insulation on telescope corrector plate mounts for use in low temp, high humidity applications, but the cost was too high. It’s the most amazing solid I’ve ever seen.
What a breakthrough, even though “Her process is experimental and several years away from commercial use.” Looks like the funding is in place.
#5 – #6 – #8
Nice reference 🙂
Silica is very abundant in sand–so why the expense in finding a source? Something is not being said like some special kind of silica?
and absent the raw material question, that can’t be the major cost element? and the real story here is the process by which aerogel was found to be made?
Seems the article is more misleading, or skips important issues the uniformed reader such as myself needs to know to make it relevant?
#7 – Smartalix
Interesting link.
If the conservatives hadn’t sold our national interests to the oil companies, we could be leaders in the green revolution. This is the kind of stuff _we_ should be inventing.
#5: no chance jcd. not with the nexus of pirates on boats lurking just offshore waiting to create fake fake-aerogel 😛
Here’s hoping tge patent rights will bee sold and China will be mass producing this most valuable commodity very soon! Great work by the discoverer, thank you
Bravo Malaysiaan…