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Title: Modeling silica aerogel optical performance by determining its radiative properties

Abstract

Silica aerogel has been known as a promising candidate for high performance transparent insulation material (TIM). Optical transparency is a crucial metric for silica aerogels in many solar related applications. Both scattering and absorption can reduce the amount of light transmitted through an aerogel slab. Due to multiple scattering, the transmittance deviates from the Beer-Lambert law (exponential attenuation). To better understand its optical performance, we decoupled and quantified the extinction contributions of absorption and scattering separately by identifying two sets of radiative properties. The radiative properties are deduced from the measured total transmittance and reflectance spectra (from 250 nm to 2500 nm) of synthesized aerogel samples by solving the inverse problem of the 1-D Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE). The obtained radiative properties are found to be independent of the sample geometry and can be considered intrinsic material properties, which originate from the aerogel’s microstructure. This revelation allows for these properties to be directly compared between different samples. We also demonstrate that by using the obtained radiative properties, we can model the photon transport in aerogels of arbitrary shapes, where an analytical solution is cumbersome to obtain.

Authors:
ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
OSTI Identifier:
1239703
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1421032; OSTI ID: 1547038
Grant/Contract Number:  
AR0000471
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
AIP Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: AIP Advances Journal Volume: 6 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2158-3226
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Zhao, Lin, Yang, Sungwoo, Bhatia, Bikram, Strobach, Elise, and Wang, Evelyn N. Modeling silica aerogel optical performance by determining its radiative properties. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4943215.
Zhao, Lin, Yang, Sungwoo, Bhatia, Bikram, Strobach, Elise, & Wang, Evelyn N. Modeling silica aerogel optical performance by determining its radiative properties. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4943215
Zhao, Lin, Yang, Sungwoo, Bhatia, Bikram, Strobach, Elise, and Wang, Evelyn N. Mon . "Modeling silica aerogel optical performance by determining its radiative properties". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4943215.
@article{osti_1239703,
title = {Modeling silica aerogel optical performance by determining its radiative properties},
author = {Zhao, Lin and Yang, Sungwoo and Bhatia, Bikram and Strobach, Elise and Wang, Evelyn N.},
abstractNote = {Silica aerogel has been known as a promising candidate for high performance transparent insulation material (TIM). Optical transparency is a crucial metric for silica aerogels in many solar related applications. Both scattering and absorption can reduce the amount of light transmitted through an aerogel slab. Due to multiple scattering, the transmittance deviates from the Beer-Lambert law (exponential attenuation). To better understand its optical performance, we decoupled and quantified the extinction contributions of absorption and scattering separately by identifying two sets of radiative properties. The radiative properties are deduced from the measured total transmittance and reflectance spectra (from 250 nm to 2500 nm) of synthesized aerogel samples by solving the inverse problem of the 1-D Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE). The obtained radiative properties are found to be independent of the sample geometry and can be considered intrinsic material properties, which originate from the aerogel’s microstructure. This revelation allows for these properties to be directly compared between different samples. We also demonstrate that by using the obtained radiative properties, we can model the photon transport in aerogels of arbitrary shapes, where an analytical solution is cumbersome to obtain.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4943215},
journal = {AIP Advances},
number = 2,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4943215

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Cited by: 44 works
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