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Chapter 05 of 5

The Future of Less: Beyond Silica

Modern iterations using carbon and polymers for the next generation of materials.

  1. Material Evolution

    Moving Beyond Glass

    While silica aerogels are incredible insulators, they are notoriously brittle. Scientists are now swapping silicon for carbon and polymers to add durability.

  2. New Horizons

    Enter Carbon Aerogel

    First developed in the 1980s, carbon aerogels are electrically conductive and possess a massive internal surface area.

  3. Mechanism

    The Storage Giant

    Because they are mostly empty space, carbon aerogels can store massive amounts of electrical energy in supercapacitors.

17 more cards in this chapter

Could you answer this?

Which type of aerogel is currently recognized as the lightest solid and can bounce back after being compressed?

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☁️ The Impossible Smoke of Aerogel

  1. 01The Bet: Replacing Liquid with AirThe origins of the world's lightest solid from a 1930s laboratory wager.
  2. 02Supercritical Drying & The Phase ShiftMastering the physics of heat and pressure to create 'frozen smoke.'
  3. 03Nanopores: The Physics of 99% AirWhy a material that is almost entirely empty space is a master insulator.
  4. 04Stardust & The Cosmic VacuumHow NASA used aerogel to catch high-speed particles from a comet's tail.
  5. 05The Future of Less: Beyond SilicaModern iterations using carbon and polymers for the next generation of materials.