Mondo Knows Facts
Aerogel is a solid synthetic material that is mostly air
Replacing liquid in a gel with gas creates ultra-light solids up to 99 percent air
Aerogel is manufactured by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying, leaving behind a rigid nanostructured silica mesh. The resulting solid consists of up to 99 percent air by volume, making it extremely light and translucent. Its intricate nanoporous structure traps air molecules, making aerogel one of the best thermal insulators known.
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Tags: chemistry, aerogel, materials
Aerogel is a solid synthetic material that is mostly air: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Replacing liquid in a gel with gas creates ultra-light solids up to 99 percent air. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
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