Scientists show new super-insulating gel material derived from beer brewing by-product

Aerogel is currently the lightest and high-quality thermal insulation material, and more than 90% of its weight is air. But the cloudy appearance of clouds means that they are difficult to use as "windows". After all, this is one of the reasons that causes heat to escape from buildings. The good news is that researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have found a way to make it transparent, focusing on the by-products of beer brewing.


The new transparent aerogel was placed in a bathtub pressed against a glass plate.

Trapping the air is a key to thermal insulation. Ordinary clothes are ventilated, but materials such as wool and goose down have a larger surface area and can hold more air, thereby achieving a better warming effect.

The main component of aerogels is also air, which makes them excellent insulators and has been commonly used in bricks, small houses, and winter jackets.

However, if you want to turn them into windows, you have to consider their unique material structure:

Aerogels have a cross-shaped solid material structure that can generate billions of pores to absorb air, but also scatter a lot of light, making them sometimes appear to be called 'frozen smoke'.


Qingkun Liu with raw materials (from beer wort).

To this end, the team set out to develop a more transparent aerogel. Not only can it be installed on a window to let light through, but it can also retain heat.

For this reason, researchers turned to cellulose material, a common plant sugar, which can manipulate its molecules and connect them in a uniform grid pattern. But the most tactful thing is that they used the acquired liquid waste.

As a by-product of beer brewing, beer wort is usually discarded by the factory. But after being recovered by the team, they added special bacteria to make cellulose from beer wort in about two weeks.

For the materials on hand, the research team can induce cellulose to self-assemble into nanofibers, which are then used to make gels. The end result is that it is not only transparent, but also highly heat resistant.


The raw material of this transparent aerogel belongs to the "by-product" of beer manufacturing.

The team said the best example of a transparent aerogel is the film attached to the window. It can greatly improve the heat insulation, while increasing the thermal efficiency, the cost is even lower.

Research co-author Andrew Hess said that the cost of replacing windows is high, and we are currently envisioning a modified product. It is similar to the peel-and-stick film that consumers buy in stores such as Home Depot.

In addition, this technology has many other application prospects, including smart clothing, automotive insulation, and fire protection.


The new transparent aerogel sample can make the window a better insulator.

It is worth mentioning that these applications can even break out of the earth. A few months ago, the team won the 2018 iTech competition organized by NASA, which used aerogel as an extraordinary window insulator.

Corresponding author of the study, Ivan Smalyukh, said that transparency is a practical feature because you can use this gel on windows and even use it in extraterrestrial habitats.

You can collect and store the energy of sunlight through thermal insulation materials to protect yourself from the huge temperature difference oscillations on Mars or the moon.

Details of this research have been published in the recently published "Nano Energy" (Nano Energy) journal.

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