Innovative Aerogel Production for Low-cost and High-R Insulation

Aerogels is a solid with nanometer-sized pores that exhibits many unusual and useful properties including very high R-insulation. However, aerogels often are very brittle, require very expensive material feedstocks, and utilize complex and costly manufacturing processes. Therefore, DOE seeks innovative insulation with high-R insulation of an R-value/inch of 8 or greater ( thermal conductivity value of < 18 mW/m K) at a significant cost reduction of 3-5 times. Optowares proposes to develop poly-DCPD aerogel blankets using sol-gel processing, followed by ambient pressure drying through (i) modified “spring-back” method with the hydrophobic surface and solvent exchange step and (ii) chemically induced phase separation (CIPS) methods. Our proposed poly-DCPD aerogel blanket for sustainable insulation material must meet the cost target of 3-5 times compared to silica aerogel blankets and have an R-value/inch of 8 or greater at poly-DCPD aerogel blanket density of 0.112 and 0.138 g/cc, which translate to thermal conductivity values of