A delicate flower is protected from a hot flame by a quarter-inch (6 mm) of aerogel (Photo: NASA)
A Smart car parked on top of a thick piece of NASA's new polymer aerogel (Photo: NASA)
Flexible sheets of NASA's new polymer aerogel. A sheet this thick would provide thermal insulation equal to about an inch (25 mm) of foam insulation (Photo: NASA)
Scanning electron micrograph of the nano-sized cell structure of NASA's new polymer aerogel. The average cell size is about ten nanometers (Photo: NASA)
Often called "frozen smoke", aerogels are among the amazing materials of our time, with fifteen Guinness Book of World Records entries to their name. However, despite their list of extreme properties, traditional aerogels are brittle, crumbling and fracturing easily enough to keep them out of many practical applications. A new class of mechanically robust polymer aerogels discovered at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio may soon enable engineering applications such as super-insulated clothing, unique filters, refrigerators with thinner walls, and super-insulation for buildings.
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