AEROGEL – A Promising Building Material for Sustainable Buildings

Huatao New Product Introduction:

Huatao Aerogel blankets is a flexible, high-performance, silica aerogel-based insulation material of limited combustibility used for exterior and interior applications. The product is used to optimise the thermal performance and fire properties of façade systems in a number of ways. These include enhancing the thermal performance of the ventilated façade, and addressing thermal bridging in the façade. also useful in minimising thermal bridges around windows in areas such as window reveals and roller shutter cases.

Class leading A2 reaction to fire classification from an Aerogel insulation

Superior thermal performance

Limited combustibility

AEROGEL – A Promising Building Material for Sustainable Buildings

To reach the European Union 2020 targets energy and climate targets, improving energy efficiency of buildings is required as an important measure . In this regard, the researchers from universities and industry investigate new intelligent materials with a strong impact on the field of the built environment, especially considering thermal insulation of the buildings.

Silica aerogels are a new and efficient alternative to traditional insulation. Because of their outstanding properties, especially of the low thermal conductivity, light-weight and sound-proof can be used as building components for a variety of purposes. However, the costs of these materials are still high for many industries, including for the building industry. The market share of aerogels tripled to 83 M$ in 2008, was valued at 221.8 M$ in 2013 and it is estimated to reach 1,896.6 M$ by 2020 . Thus, the researches continue to develop new technology to improve the insulation performance and to reduce the production costs of aerogels.

For building applications, the granular aerogel-base translucent insulation materials and transparent monolithic aerogel are the most used . Generally, if the monolithic aerogels possess superior thermal and optical properties, are expensive to be produced, needs long processing times and require to be protected from tension and moisture, the granular aerogels dominate the commercial market, even has low performance but are most robust, cheaper and easier to be produced at the commercial scale . These aerogels are most used for achieving the roofs, facades, walls or insulation bricks (aero-bricks) and windows, but also for the sound insulation, fire retardation and air purification.

Aerogel can be also used as interior and exterior insulated plasters for breathable building envelopes and facades .