Aerogel
Aerogel is a synthetic material that was derived from a gel. Unlike normal gel materials, aerogel has a gas component instead of a liquid one, hence the name. Now aerogel has been around for many, many years, all the way back in the 1920’s, however, in this day and age, we can use aerogel as a base for more advancing and emerging technologies. Aerogel itself has also been upgraded as the years have gone by, and is a much stronger and better material than it was in the 1920’s. The first version and the current version are only similar in name and idea at this point.
Aerogel is a very low density material, but is extremely strong. Due to the ability we now have of mixing metals into the aerogel making process, we can create much stronger windows, and a much better insulation, like the above picture. When we have We can get these stronger aerogels for the 21st Century because we have a better understanding of how to make aerogels better.
Aerogel was made in 1920 on a bet from two scientists, so it’s a bit difficult to find out what they said when it was being announced, but it is quite amazing at the leaps and bounds that we have made with this type of technology in the almost 100 years it been around.
The future for aerogel, would be the much stronger variants of glass that was mentioned earlier. Once scientists find a way to make the gel clear, then the force of impact windows can handle would be crazy. This will not only help with windows for building or cars,but also space ships/rockets and submarines. Then when begin combining aerogel with other metals, we can begin creating stronger shells for all out land, air, space, and water vehicles. Our problems with it now is how expensive it is to make.(https://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/aerogels.html)
All in all, aerogel is a material that will continue to evolve as time goes on. While it evolves, we will be integrating it into more and more products as well. Aerogel is a high safety advancement, and it’ll be great to see just how far it goes before it even becomes fully accessible to the public.
