Thermographic Studies of Aerogel Composites

Abstract Aerogels are regarded as the superior thermal insulating materials for wide range of temperatures, from cryogenic insulation, cold water diving garments to high temperature applications and even to defense and aerospace applications. For most of such applications, the aerogels are used in composite form rather than monolithic form as aerogels are fragile in nature due to its high porosity of up to 98%. These composites constitute aerogel infiltrated fiber mats to give flexibility, on the other hand, compromises on the insulation performance due to reinforcing aerogel with fibers that have comparatively higher thermal conductivity than silica aerogel. To increase the efficiency, density of the fiber mat needs to be reduced to incorporate higher loading of silica aerogel. Many techniques are being used to study the insulation performance of these composites. This paper presents about the study of insulation performance of fibre mats with different aerogel content and composition using a well-known thermography technique. The morphological, compositional, thermal and physical studies of the fiber mats and its composites using FESEM, EDAX, BET, thermal conductivity etc., are discussed.