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Silica aerogel paper honeycomb composites for thermal insulations

  • Invited Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for energy, environment and building applications
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Abstract

Applicability of super-insulating silica aerogel materials for thermal insulation is still restricted by limited mechanical strength. We report on a systematic improvement of silica aerogels in respect to shrinkage, density and thermal conductivity by varying sol-gel parameters as the molar ratios of TEOS:EtOH:H2O or the hydrolysis time. The received silica aerogels can be combined with paper-based honeycomb structures to improve the mechanical strength. We successfully manufactured such silica aerogel paper honeycomb composites. The challenges in the preparation are the must to prevent shrinkage of the silica aerogels during synthesis, to avoid cracks by supercritical drying, and to get a perfect bonding at the paper–silica interface. The composite materials are characterized with respect to their compression modulus, thermal conductivity, and flammability.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financially supported by the European Union through the NRW-EFRE Project No. 64.65.69-PRO-0057 A (AeroBau). We also acknowledge support by Dr. Matthias Kolbe from DLR, Cologne for help with the SEM images. We thank Swap GmbH and Koehler Greiz GmbH for providing honeycombs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), D-51170, Cologne, Germany

    André Berkefeld, Markus Heyer & Barbara Milow

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  1. André Berkefeld
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  2. Markus Heyer
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  3. Barbara Milow
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Correspondence to André Berkefeld.

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Berkefeld, A., Heyer, M. & Milow, B. Silica aerogel paper honeycomb composites for thermal insulations. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 84, 486–495 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-017-4497-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-017-4497-6

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