One of the World's Lightest Solids Expected to be "Miracle Material for the 21st Century"
"It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see Aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewelry."
(Northborough, Massachusetts)—The Sunday Times U.K. has published a report on Aerogel (nicknamed "frozen smoke"), calling it a "miracle material for the 21st century" and one of the world's lightest solids. According to the report, although Aerogel is classed as a solid, 99% of the substance is made up of gas, which gives it a cloudy appearance, and scientists say that because it has so many millions of pores and ridges, if one cubic centimeter of Aerogel were unraveled it would fill an area the size of a football field.
Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: "It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see Aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewelry."
Aerogel—invented by an American chemist in 1931—is reportedly made by extracting water from a silica gel and then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide, resulting in a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil.
Mark Krajewski, a senior scientist at Aspen Aerogel, a company created by NASA, believes that an 18mm layer of Aerogel in astronaut's spacesuits will be sufficient to protect them from temperatures as low as -130C. "It is the greatest insulator we've ever seen," he said.
Said Bob Stoker, after becoming the first Briton to have his property insulated with Aerogel: "The heating has improved significantly. I turned the thermostat down five degrees. It's been a remarkable transformation," he said.
Mountain climbers have also tried using the substance. Anne Parmenter, who climbed Everest using boots that had Aerogel insoles, as well as sleeping bags padded with the material said, "The only problem I had was that my feet were too hot, which is a great problem to have as a mountaineer."
