What is aerogel?

The world’s most complex and lightest material is made of 99.8% air!

This synthetic porous ultralight material is derived from a gel in which the liquid component of the gel is replaced by a gas. The result is a solid body with extremely low density and thermal conductivity. To the touch, it resembles brittle polystyrene foam.

Aerogels can be made of a variety of chemical compounds. It was first produced in 1931 by Samuel Stephens Kistler. He argued that he could replace the liquid with gas without shrinking the structure. The first aerogels were made of silica gels. Kistler’s later work concerned aerogels based on aluminium oxide, chromium oxide and tin dioxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the late 1980s.

This material is an excellent thermal insulator, so it is widely used for environmentally friendly and efficient thermal insulation on an industrial scale.