Aerogel powder, as a shining star in the field of nanomaterials, is attracting the attention and changes of many industries with its unique structure and excellent performance.
       Aerogel powder is composed of nano-scale particles, and is filled with a large number of nano-scale pores inside. The porosity is extremely high, up to 80%-99.8%. Such a unique nanoporous structure gives it many extraordinary properties. First of all, it has an extremely low density and is often called "frozen smoke" or "solid smoke". It is one of the lightest solid materials in the world. The extremely low density makes it extremely light, but it has a huge specific surface area. The specific surface area of each gram of aerogel powder can reach hundreds or even thousands of square meters. At the same time, the thermal conductivity of aerogel powder is extremely low, and the thermal insulation performance is very excellent. It can effectively prevent the transfer of heat and is an ideal thermal insulation material. In addition, it also has good chemical stability and acoustic properties.
       There are various methods for preparing aerogel powder. The more common one is the sol-gel method combined with supercritical drying technology. In the sol-gel process, the hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions of the precursors are controlled to form a wet gel, and then the solvent in the wet gel is removed by supercritical drying technology to avoid the collapse of the aerogel structure due to capillary force during the drying process, thereby obtaining an aerogel powder with a nanoporous structure.
       These characteristics of aerogel powder make it have broad application prospects in many fields. In the aerospace field, due to its light weight and excellent thermal insulation performance, it can be used in the thermal protection system of spacecraft, reducing the weight of the spacecraft while effectively resisting extreme temperature environments. In the construction industry, adding aerogel powder to building materials can significantly improve the thermal insulation performance of the materials and reduce the energy consumption of buildings. In the field of environmental protection, its huge specific surface area makes it an efficient adsorbent for treating sewage and purifying air, and adsorbing various pollutants. In the field of energy storage, aerogel powder can also be used to manufacture high-performance battery electrode materials to improve battery performance. With the continuous advancement of science and technology, aerogel powder is expected to play an important role in more fields and bring more surprises and changes to our lives.