Aerogels are a class of synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas, without significant collapse of the gel structure, which result in a solid with extremely low density and extremely low thermal conductivity.
Runteks is promoting and selling aerogel yarn.
Aerogels have a porous structure and contain a high percentage of air (>95%), this results in its extremely low density (the lowest aerogel can be 0.16 mg/cm3）.
Air itself is a poor thermal conductor, but it can still transfer heat by convection. However, in aerogel, the narrow space in the nanostructure hinders air molecules from moving freely and effectively, and hence prevents convection of the air trapped inside , which enables aerogel to be an even better thermal insulator than air, its thermal conductivity is as low as 0.013W/m∙K.
The applications of aerogel yarn are very extensive, in addition to outdoor clothing and thermal underwear, they can also be used in bulletproof vests, tents, sleeping bags, knee pads, yoga clothes, and other fields.
At present, the use of aerogel yarn in the textile and clothing market is mainly concentrated on winter cold-proof and thermal insulation products. Traditionally, this clothing sub-market is mostly occupied by cotton, down, wool, cashmere, and acrylic products.
As a result, aerogel yarn may also be a direction for the development of thermal insulation fibers in the future.
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