The industrial popularization of aerogel slurry is mainly driven by the continuous iteration and innovation of its preparation process. As a key carrier connecting aerogel powder and practical applications, its preparation process not only determines the performance stability of the slurry, but also directly affects the production cost and feasibility of large-scale application. From the niche preparation in early laboratories to the mass production in today's industrialization, the technological upgrading of aerogel slurry has solved the industry pain points of nanomaterials such as "difficult dispersion, high cost and low compatibility", promoting it from high-end laboratories to the field of public applications.
The early preparation of aerogel slurry was centered on the supercritical drying process, which removed the solvent in the gel through a high-pressure environment and retained the three-dimensional porous structure of aerogel. However, this process required large equipment investment, high energy consumption and long production cycle, with each batch taking several hours to produce, resulting in high slurry cost. It could only be applied in high-end and niche fields such as aerospace, making it difficult to achieve large-scale promotion. This dilemma became the core bottleneck restricting the industrialization of aerogel slurry, prompting researchers to continuously explore more efficient and low-cost preparation technologies.
The breakthrough of atmospheric pressure drying process has completely changed the industrial pattern of aerogel slurry. By adding special dispersants and stabilizers, researchers can complete solvent removal and powder dispersion at normal temperature and pressure, which not only greatly reduces equipment investment and energy consumption, shortens the production cycle to less than a few hours, but also effectively improves the dispersion stability of the slurry, avoiding the agglomeration of aerogel powder. At the same time, formula optimization has significantly improved the compatibility of aerogel slurry, which can be perfectly integrated with various substrates such as coatings, mortar and fibers, adapting to various construction methods such as spraying, smearing and pouring.
Today, the preparation process of aerogel slurry is still continuously upgrading, and new technologies such as composite modification process and low-temperature preparation process are constantly emerging. The composite modification process further improves the thermal insulation and adsorption performance of the slurry by adding nanofibers, graphene and other materials; the low-temperature preparation process is suitable for more scenarios and reduces the environmental requirements in the production process. The iteration of processes not only promotes the continuous reduction of aerogel slurry cost, but also expands its performance boundary, laying a solid foundation for its diversified applications and helping the nanomaterial industry achieve high-quality development.