A new innovation in wood-based aerogel could have enormous ramification for improving the thermal properties of double glazing.
found that replacing the air in double-glazed windows with a transparent wood aerogel could make them airtight as walls. If true, this could significantly impact the construction and energy efficiency/sustainability industries.when saving energy in a building. Chief among them is that they typically have a lower thermal resistance than other building components, such as walls and roofs.
“We have a very unusual combination of properties, which is a very high transparency aerogel that also has very high thermal insulation,” says Smalyukh. “You could think [of] it as a pillow that keeps heat where you need it, and at the same time, you can see through it [to] use it in a window.” The research team achieved this by first hanging cellulose nanofibres from wood in water before switching the water out for ethanol to create the aerogel. They then used higher temperatures and pressure to dry the aerogel, replacing the ethanol used to fill the material's pockets with air. Finally, they added silicon compounds to the surface to make the aerogel water-repellent, stopping condensation when applied to windows.
“This is a nice development that could be easily employed as a retrofit to existing windows,” says Steve Eichhorn at the University of Bristol in the UK. “The reduction in heat transfer, with the added benefit of maintained transparency and low haze, make this material truly remarkable, and all with a sustainable material, cellulose.”
Even though there will be difficulties, it is already possible to produce cellulose nanofibres at a large size, according to Eichhorn."To maintain comfortable indoor conditions, buildings consume ~40% of the energy generated globally. In terms of passively isolating building interiors from cold or hot outdoors, windows and skylights are the least-efficient parts of the building envelope because achieving simultaneously high transparency and thermal insulation of glazing remains a challenge.
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