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Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels

Author

Listed:
  • Shanyu Zhao

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Gilberto Siqueira

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Sarka Drdova

    (ETH Zurich
    Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • David Norris

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Christopher Ubert

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Anne Bonnin

    (Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute)

  • Sandra Galmarini

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Michal Ganobjak

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa
    Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava)

  • Zhengyuan Pan

    (ETH Zurich
    South China University of Technology)

  • Samuel Brunner

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Gustav Nyström

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa
    ETH Zurich)

  • Jing Wang

    (ETH Zurich
    Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Matthias M. Koebel

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

  • Wim J. Malfait

    (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa)

Abstract

Owing to their ultralow thermal conductivity and open pore structure1–3, silica aerogels are widely used in thermal insulation4,5, catalysis6, physics7,8, environmental remediation6,9, optical devices10 and hypervelocity particle capture11. Thermal insulation is by far the largest market for silica aerogels, which are ideal materials when space is limited. One drawback of silica aerogels is their brittleness. Fibre reinforcement and binders can be used to overcome this for large-volume applications in building and industrial insulation5,12, but their poor machinability, combined with the difficulty of precisely casting small objects, limits the miniaturization potential of silica aerogels. Additive manufacturing provides an alternative route to miniaturization, but was “considered not feasible for silica aerogel”13. Here we present a direct ink writing protocol to create miniaturized silica aerogel objects from a slurry of silica aerogel powder in a dilute silica nanoparticle suspension (sol). The inks exhibit shear-thinning behaviour, owing to the high volume fraction of gel particles. As a result, they flow easily through the nozzle during printing, but their viscosity increases rapidly after printing, ensuring that the printed objects retain their shape. After printing, the silica sol is gelled in an ammonia atmosphere to enable subsequent processing into aerogels. The printed aerogel objects are pure silica and retain the high specific surface area (751 square metres per gram) and ultralow thermal conductivity (15.9 milliwatts per metre per kelvin) typical of silica aerogels. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ease with which functional nanoparticles can be incorporated. The printed silica aerogel objects can be used for thermal management, as miniaturized gas pumps and to degrade volatile organic compounds, illustrating the potential of our protocol.

Suggested Citation

  • Shanyu Zhao & Gilberto Siqueira & Sarka Drdova & David Norris & Christopher Ubert & Anne Bonnin & Sandra Galmarini & Michal Ganobjak & Zhengyuan Pan & Samuel Brunner & Gustav Nyström & Jing Wang & Mat, 2020. "Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7821), pages 387-392, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:584:y:2020:i:7821:d:10.1038_s41586-020-2594-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2594-0
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Feng Xiong & Jiawei Zhou & Yongkang Jin & Zitao Zhang & Mulin Qin & Haiwei Han & Zhenghui Shen & Shenghui Han & Xiaoye Geng & Kaihang Jia & Ruqiang Zou, 2024. "Thermal shock protection with scalable heat-absorbing aerogels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Minju Song & Yoonkyum Kim & Du San Baek & Ho Young Kim & Da Hwi Gu & Haiyang Li & Benjamin V. Cunning & Seong Eun Yang & Seung Hwae Heo & Seunghyun Lee & Minhyuk Kim & June Sung Lim & Hu Young Jeong &, 2023. "3D microprinting of inorganic porous materials by chemical linking-induced solidification of nanocrystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Lei Su & Shuhai Jia & Junqiang Ren & Xuefeng Lu & Sheng-Wu Guo & Pengfei Guo & Zhixin Cai & De Lu & Min Niu & Lei Zhuang & Kang Peng & Hongjie Wang, 2023. "Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Lu An & Zipeng Guo & Zheng Li & Yu Fu & Yong Hu & Yulong Huang & Fei Yao & Chi Zhou & Shenqiang Ren, 2022. "Tailoring thermal insulation architectures from additive manufacturing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    5. Xiaoyu Zhang & Qi Sun & Xing Liang & Puzhong Gu & Zhenyu Hu & Xiao Yang & Muxiang Liu & Zejun Sun & Jia Huang & Guangming Wu & Guoqing Zu, 2024. "Stretchable and negative-Poisson-ratio porous metamaterials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Feng Jin & Jie Liu & Yuan-Yuan Zhao & Xian-Zi Dong & Mei-Ling Zheng & Xuan-Ming Duan, 2022. "λ/30 inorganic features achieved by multi-photon 3D lithography," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Huimin He & Xi Wei & Bin Yang & Hongzhen Liu & Mingze Sun & Yanran Li & Aixin Yan & Chuyang Y. Tang & Yuan Lin & Lizhi Xu, 2022. "Ultrastrong and multifunctional aerogels with hyperconnective network of composite polymeric nanofibers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Lei Li & Yiqian Zhou & Yang Gao & Xuning Feng & Fangshu Zhang & Weiwei Li & Bin Zhu & Ze Tian & Peixun Fan & Minlin Zhong & Huichang Niu & Shanyu Zhao & Xiaoding Wei & Jia Zhu & Hui Wu, 2023. "Large-scale assembly of isotropic nanofiber aerogels based on columnar-equiaxed crystal transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Kit-Ying Chan & Xi Shen & Jie Yang & Keng-Te Lin & Harun Venkatesan & Eunyoung Kim & Heng Zhang & Jeng-Hun Lee & Jinhong Yu & Jinglei Yang & Jang-Kyo Kim, 2022. "Scalable anisotropic cooling aerogels by additive freeze-casting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Xiaota Cheng & Yi-Tao Liu & Yang Si & Jianyong Yu & Bin Ding, 2022. "Direct synthesis of highly stretchable ceramic nanofibrous aerogels via 3D reaction electrospinning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Lin, Zizhen & Ping, Xiaofan & Zhao, Dongming & Cai, Zihe & Wang, Xingtao & Zhang, Chi & Wang, Lichuang & Li, Menglei & Chen, Xiongfei & Niu, Jingkai & Xue, Yao & Liu, Yun & Li, Xinlian & Qin, Xiaojun , 2024. "A biomimetic non-woven fabric with passive thermal-insulation and active heat-recovering," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    12. Wu, Yang & Meng, Xiangbao & Zhang, Yansong & Shi, Lei & Wu, Qiyan & Liu, Li & Wang, Zhifeng & Liu, Jiqing & Yan, Ke & Wang, Tong, 2023. "Experimental study on the suppression of coal dust explosion by silica aerogel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    13. Yinglai Hou & Zhizhi Sheng & Chen Fu & Jie Kong & Xuetong Zhang, 2022. "Hygroscopic holey graphene aerogel fibers enable highly efficient moisture capture, heat allocation and microwave absorption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Lishan Li & Guandu Yang & Jing Lyu & Zhizhi Sheng & Fengguo Ma & Xuetong Zhang, 2023. "Folk arts-inspired twice-coagulated configuration-editable tough aerogels enabled by transformable gel precursors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Yuzhou Shao & Lusong Wei & Xinyue Wu & Chengmei Jiang & Yao Yao & Bo Peng & Han Chen & Jiangtao Huangfu & Yibin Ying & Chuanfang John Zhang & Jianfeng Ping, 2022. "Room-temperature high-precision printing of flexible wireless electronics based on MXene inks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    16. Ting Quan & Qi Xia & Xiaoyu Wei & Yanli Zhu, 2024. "Recent Development of Thermal Insulating Materials for Li-Ion Batteries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-37, September.
    17. Huawei Qu & Chongjian Gao & Kaizheng Liu & Hongya Fu & Zhiyuan Liu & Paul H. J. Kouwer & Zhenyu Han & Changshun Ruan, 2024. "Gradient matters via filament diameter-adjustable 3D printing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

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