Fantastic Material Aerogel

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Fantastic Material Aerogel

Aerogel is a fantastic material that is strong as steel and light as air. (Its weight is only 3 times heavier than air.)

It is a synthetic material derived from a gel. Sometimes it is called as “frozen smoke”. Despite its name, it is a rigid material.

Aerogels are very good thermal insulators. Generally they are made of silica. However there are some different substances used as the rigid part.

Aerogel is a futuristic material. However its invention was made in 1931 by Dr Samuel Kistler at the College of the Pacific in California.

Aerogel is used in some products such as:

• Firefighter suits
• Paints
• Cosmetics
• Rockets

By using some nano-technological production techniques, aerogel can be an important material candidate in our future products.

Ahmet Aksoy

References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel
• http://www.aerogel.org/
• http://www.aerogel.com/resources/about-aerogel/
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/aerogel4.htm