A see-through aerogel made from wood could replace air in double-glazed windows and make them as insulating as walls
to create an aerogel, a solid gel containing pockets of gas, that could function better than air in double glazing.“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 about it as a pillow that keeps heat where you need it and at the same time you can see through it, so you can use it in a window.
To make the aerogel, they first suspended cellulose nanofibres from wood in water, then replaced the water with ethanol. Next, they dried the aerogel by raising the temperature and pressure, replacing the ethanol filling pockets in the material with air, then adding silicon compounds to the surface to make it water-repellent, preventing condensation when used in windows.
Tiny pockets of air embedded in the aerogel mean it can be used to fill a wider space without the convection effects you would get with air alone. An aerogel filling around 2.5 centimetres wide could make a window as insulating as a wall.
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