Aerogel additive manufacturing
A printing capability for gels and aerogels, with great replication fidelity at 10-1000 µm length scale, creates the possibility for spatially varying aerogel compositions and functions and enables a breakthrough in a technological adoption of aerogels for multi-functional assembly and miniaturization applications. At Empa, we developed a direct ink writing protocol to print aerogel objects based on custom-tailored precursors systems [1]. Functional (nano)particles or various polymers are easily incorporated. The method enables the production of miniaturized objects with outstanding shape fidelity.
![https://carboquant.empa.ch/documents/56010/20565576/6_Additive+manufacturing+silica+aerogel_kryk.jpg/0e369dd7-2b0d-4e35-b719-4172e11ff755?t=1649088668000](https://carboquant.empa.ch/documents/56010/20565576/6_Additive+manufacturing+silica+aerogel_kryk.jpg/0e369dd7-2b0d-4e35-b719-4172e11ff755?t=1649088668000)
The printed aerogel can be pure silica, pure polymers, or hybrids with tailored compositions and functions, with an excellence performance due to the intrinsic aerogel properties (e.g. equivalent SBET and λ of 751 m2/g, 15.9 mW∙m-1∙K-1 for printed silica aerogels). We demonstrated proof of concepts for additive manufacturing of a variety of material systems, including silica, alumina, polyimide, nanocellulose aerogel materials.
![https://carboquant.empa.ch/documents/56010/20565576/6_Additive+manufacturing+various+aerogels_neu.png/106e5ce8-4396-400f-8035-723b32d738c3?t=1649345720000](https://carboquant.empa.ch/documents/56010/20565576/6_Additive+manufacturing+various+aerogels_neu.png/106e5ce8-4396-400f-8035-723b32d738c3?t=1649345720000)