Aerogel insulation materials for industrial installation : properties and structure of new factory-made products

Abstract

In this article the comparisons of two new factory-made Chinese aerogel products with the Pyrogel® product, all available on the market, are presented. The aerogel products are in a flexible blanket form and all products are dedicated for high temperature applications. The properties of the samples such as their dimension stability, water vapour transmission and water absorption are also described. Additionally the microstructure and chemical composition of the products are analysed using SEM/ EDS (scanning electron microscopy coupled with X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy). The differences in the maximum service temperature are presented. The internal self-heating of the aerogel samples is described and is compared to a similar effect observed in mineral wool samples. The results in the change of the thermal properties in a wide range of temperatures (+ 10–600°C) are shown. The obtained results are correlated with the mineral wool data. The correlation shows an advantage in a highefficiency thermal performance of aerogel products compared to other insulation materials at high temperatures.