The world of textile fibers is always undergoing rapid changes, and China, as a major country in textile and clothing production and processing, is always the first to feel such changes. Recently, an aerogel fiber with high porosity and ultra-low density, developed by a technology company in Qingdao, has become a shining star in the textile fiber family in China.
What is aerogel fiber?
Aerogel fiber is a new type of functional clothing fiber with good warmth retention, moisture absorption, air permeability and other characteristics. The so-called aerogel fiber, as the name implies, refers to the textile and clothing fiber material made of aerogel.
It is well known that gel is an elastic solid with a spatial network structure formed by colloidal particles in sol or solution under the action of dispersion medium. Water as the dispersion medium is called hydrogel; The gas dispersion medium is called aerogel.
Aerogel is a solid material with the lowest density known in the world at present. Because most of its internal components are gases, it looks like a cloud. Therefore, aerogel is also called “solid smoke”. The birth of aerogel came from the idea that scientists with large brain cavities should replace the water in jelly (hydrogel) with gas.
The aerogel fiber produced by a science and technology company in Qingdao is a new functional textile fiber produced by grinding silica aerogel into ultra-fine powder and then combining it with polyester.
Similarly, the combination of silicon based aerogel powder and polyester produces polyester aerogel fiber; The combination of aerogel powder and cellulose produces cellulose aerogel fiber
Air is the best insulation material, for example, the fluffiness of down is an important standard for testing its quality. More than 90% of aerogel is air, so aerogel fiber has extremely high thermal insulation performance.
According to relevant experimental data, the thermal insulation value of polyester aerogel fiber is far higher than the national standard extremely low thermal conductivity: ≤ 0.02W/(MK).
At the same time, aerogel fiber also has the characteristics of light weight. Because the specific gravity of aerogel is very light, between 10-30kg per cubic meter, aerogel yarn is actually very light. Compared to ordinary clothing fibers, their thickness is only half and their density is as low as 0.003 grams per square centimeter.
In addition, the outer air gel fiber is filled with nano air mass, and the specific surface area of the fiber is much larger than that of the porous hollow microfiber. It has good moisture absorption and permeability, and is convenient for the downstream printing and dyeing of the industry chain.
Use of aerogel fiber
The aerogel fiber with extremely high heat preservation, moisture absorption and air permeability has a wide range of applications.
Obviously, it is used to make cold clothing, sportswear, etc. With the further development of textile fiber technology, products made of aerogel fiber, such as a part of aerospace clothing, can be applied to the aerospace field.
People who enjoy outdoor sports and enjoy climbing, exploring, and crossing mountains cannot avoid their own safety issues in complex outdoor environments, especially in low temperatures.
According to the laboratory data, the thermal insulation performance of aerogel fiber at low temperature is 2.8 times that of cotton cloth, and its enthalpy value can reach 162 J/g, which can give play to the thermal insulation performance for a long time under the extreme environment of minus 196 ℃ to minus 300 ℃.
The aerogel fiber developed by a science and technology company in Qingdao is used to produce cold proof clothing, which can also keep warm in extremely cold temperatures.
At the same time, aerogel fiber has extremely high thermal insulation, moisture absorption and air permeability, which is also very suitable for applications in thermal underwear and other products. The biggest problem with regular thermal underwear is that it is warm but not breathable.
In winter, when entering indoors from outdoors, it is difficult to expel the moisture generated by the human body after the temperature rises, resulting in a significant decrease in user comfort. However, the aerogel fiber produced by a technology company in Qingdao can perfectly solve the above problems.
Aerogel fiber is widely used. In addition to outdoor clothing and thermal underwear, it can also be used in bulletproof vest, tents, sleeping bags, knee pads, yoga clothes and other fields.
Market of aerogel fiber
From the current point of view, the use of aerogel fiber in the textile and clothing market is mainly concentrated on the cold insulation products in winter. Traditionally, this clothing segment is mostly dominated by products such as cotton, down, wool, cashmere, and acrylic.
Industry insiders know that the thermal insulation performance of fiber materials is directly proportional to the static air content inside the fiber material, inversely proportional to the fiber diameter, and inversely proportional to the overall material density.
The aerogel fiber developed by a science and technology company in Qingdao has an ultra-high porosity of 98% and a high specific surface area, so it is theoretically the best fiber material for textile and clothing at present.
Therefore, aerogel fiber may also be a development direction of thermal fiber in the future. At present, aerogel fiber is a new type of textile fiber, and consumers at home and abroad do not know much about this fiber and its textile and clothing products.
Just because of this, the market for textile and clothing products produced and processed with aerogel fiber developed by a technology company in Qingdao is still a blue ocean, which can provide unlimited possibilities for the product development of related textile and clothing enterprises.
