Alumina aerogel (Al2O3 aerogel) has become one of the hot spots in aerogel research, and the industry has broad prospects for development.
There are many types of aerogels, and oxide aerogels are the mainstream products, which can be subdivided into alumina aerogels, silica aerogels, vanadium pentoxide aerogels, and zirconia aerogels. Alumina aerogel, also known as Al2O3 aerogel, refers to an aerogel made of alumina as a matrix. Alumina aerogel has the advantages of good thermal stability, good thermal insulation effect, and low thermal conductivity. It has broad application prospects in the fields of high-voltage insulation materials, high-temperature catalytic materials, and super insulation materials.
The main preparation method of alumina aerogel is the sol-gel method. According to different raw materials, it can be subdivided into two types: inorganic salt raw material method and organic metal alkoxide raw material method. The inorganic salt raw material method refers to using inorganic salts as raw materials and using supercritical drying technology to prepare alumina aerogels. This method has the advantages of low production cost and convenient operation; the organic metal alkoxide raw material method is the traditional preparation of alumina aerogels. This method can be used to prepare high-performance products, but it has shortcomings such as difficulty in reaction control and high production costs.
Silica aerogel is the mainstream product in the aerogel market. It has the advantages of high specific surface area, low density, and high porosity. However, its thermal insulation performance is poor at high temperatures. Compared with silica aerogel, alumina aerogel has better high-temperature stability, its melting point exceeds 2000°C, and its thermal insulation properties are excellent. In recent years, alumina aerogel has gradually become the focus and hot spot of research in the field of aerogels due to its excellent properties.
According to the “2023-2028 China Alumina Aerogel (Al2O3 Aerogel) Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report released by the Industrial Research Center >》 shows that alumina aerogel has broad application prospects in the fields of high-voltage insulation materials, high-temperature catalytic materials, and super insulation materials. In the field of high-voltage insulation materials, alumina aerogel can be used as an insulating material for supercapacitors and as a vacuum electrode isolation medium; in the field of high-temperature catalytic materials, alumina aerogel has good thermal stability and can be used as a catalyst aid; In the field of super insulation materials, alumina aerogel can be used as insulation materials for new energy vehicles and aerospace engines.
my country’s alumina airgel industry is still in its infancy and has not yet achieved large-scale production, but it has made many new advances in the field of research. In January 2022, the North China Electric Power University research team successfully developed a new thermal conductivity analysis model, which involves the radiation heat transfer between alumina aerogels, fibers and opacifiers, and will be applied to alumina aerosol condensation in the future. Research on the heat transfer mechanism of glue.
Industry analysts said that alumina aerogel, as a subdivided product of oxide aerogel, has good thermal insulation effect, It has the advantages of good high temperature stability and has broad application prospects in many fields. However, currently, due to factors such as high technical barriers, my country’s alumina aerogel has not yet been commercialized, and the industry is in the laboratory research and development stage. In the future, with in-depth research, the maturity of my country’s alumina airgel technology will be further improved.