Production of new type insulation material: Expanded Perlite-Silica aerogel composite

Abstract

Silica aerogel is a class of nanoporous material with extremely high porosity (85-99.9 %) and specific surface area (500-1200 m 2 /g), as in cause very low density, low thermal conductivity. But silica aerogel have some disadvantages. One of this disadvantages is high cost. In this study, to solve this problem has been used low cost precursor which is rice husk ash. Also, we try to improve porosity. To improve the porosity we used expanded perlite (EP). To produced EP is heated the perlite to 760-1100 °C, at which point its native water is converted to vapor and the material is caused to expand to 4-20 times its original volume, then the high-porosity and lightweight aggregates are formed. In this study silica aerogels have been reinforced with EP to product new type composite material which is used as building insulation material. The prepared EP-silica aerogel composite was characterized using SEM and BET measurements.