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. Here we describe highly transparent aerogels fabricated from cellulose, an Earth-abundant biopolymer, by utilizing approaches such as colloidal self assembly and procedures compatible with roll-to-roll processing. The aerogels have visible-range light transmission of 97–99% (better than glass), haze of ~1% and thermal conductivity lower than that of still air. These lightweight materials can be used as panes inside multi-pane insulating glass units and to retrofit existing windows. We demonstrate how aerogels boost energy efficiency and may enable advanced technical solutions for insulating glass units, skylights, daylighting and facade glazing, potentially increasing the role of glazing in building envelopes.
Abraham, Eldho, et al. "Highly transparent silanized cellulose aerogels for boosting energy efficiency of glazing in buildings." Nature Energy, vol. 8, no. 4, Mar. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01226-7
Abraham, Eldho, Cherpak, Vladyslav, Senyuk, Bohdan, ten Hove, Jan Bart, Lee, Taewoo, Liu, Qingkun, & Smalyukh, Ivan I. (2023). Highly transparent silanized cellulose aerogels for boosting energy efficiency of glazing in buildings. Nature Energy, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01226-7
Abraham, Eldho, Cherpak, Vladyslav, Senyuk, Bohdan, et al., "Highly transparent silanized cellulose aerogels for boosting energy efficiency of glazing in buildings," Nature Energy 8, no. 4 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-023-01226-7
@article{osti_1961931,
author = {Abraham, Eldho and Cherpak, Vladyslav and Senyuk, Bohdan and ten Hove, Jan Bart and Lee, Taewoo and Liu, Qingkun and Smalyukh, Ivan I.},
title = {Highly transparent silanized cellulose aerogels for boosting energy efficiency of glazing in buildings},
annote = {Abstract 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. Here we describe highly transparent aerogels fabricated from cellulose, an Earth-abundant biopolymer, by utilizing approaches such as colloidal self assembly and procedures compatible with roll-to-roll processing. The aerogels have visible-range light transmission of 97–99% (better than glass), haze of ~1% and thermal conductivity lower than that of still air. These lightweight materials can be used as panes inside multi-pane insulating glass units and to retrofit existing windows. We demonstrate how aerogels boost energy efficiency and may enable advanced technical solutions for insulating glass units, skylights, daylighting and facade glazing, potentially increasing the role of glazing in building envelopes.},
doi = {10.1038/s41560-023-01226-7},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1961931},
journal = {Nature Energy},
issn = {ISSN 2058-7546},
number = {4},
volume = {8},
place = {United Kingdom},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
year = {2023},
month = {03}}
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 595, Issue 1https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2008.07.072