Aerogels are the world’s lightest known solid material!
Aerogel is a synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas. The result is a solid with extremely low density, is hydrophobic (repels water), and is an outstanding insulator because it has the lowest thermal conductivity of any known solid. It is also safe to touch.
Aerogels are produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly dried off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation.
Due to its high porosity, NASA has even used aerogel to collect interstellar dust particles in outer space. It is commonly called “frozen smoke”, solid smoke, solid air, solid cloud, blue smoke owing to its translucent nature and the way light scatters in the material.
- Size: 1oz vial (approximately 1 heaping handful)
- Made in United States
