This award will enhance an interdisciplinary collaborative facility, the Aerogel Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications Lab (AFCAL), for faculty and student researchers in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry Departments at Union College. Aerogels are a class of ceramic materials fab-ricated from a sol-gel procedure followed by a carefully controlled solvent evacuation. This fabrication results in a porous nanostructure that is approximately 90-99% air by volume, with pore sizes primarily in the 2 to 50 nm range. This pore structure gives aerogels the lowest known density, index of refraction, thermal, electrical, and acoustical conductivities of any solid material. At Union College, the PIs and their undergraduate students have developed a new rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process, which utilizes a hydraulic hot press to fabricate aerogel monoliths. Using tetramethylorthosilicate-based recipes, we have fabricated silica aerogel monoliths as large as 51 x 51 x 13 mm in size. These aerogels have bulk densities as low as 0.066 g/cm3, surface areas as high as 800 m2/g, thermal conductivities in the 30-40 mW/mK range and they transmit 20 to 90% of the light in the visible range.
The enhanced AFCAL facility will be used by faculty and students in the Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry departments to: (1) study the RSCE process and the effect of processing variables on aerogel material properties; (2) examine the effects of chemical reagents on the aerogel material proper-ties; (3) model and characterize the aerogel mechanical properties; (4) prepare aerogels doped with luminescent sensors to be used in fundamental spectroscopic studies of aerogel structure and as chemical sensors; (5) determine what is necessary to scale up the RSCE process to make larger amounts of aerogel material and address any safety issues; and (6) investigate additional application areas for these materials.
We will purchase an automated pressure and temperature controlled hydraulic press, two critical point drying systems; and equipment to characterize the aerogels including a high-throughput three station physical adsorption analyzer and a materials testing system which will allow us to expand our capabilities to measure the mechanical properties of the aerogel material.
Expanding the instrumental ability will allow us to continue our successful efforts in using the AFCAL laboratory as a vehicle for fundamental interdisciplinary research. Moreover, it will facilitate collaboration with additional colleagues from Union and other academic institutions and from industry.
Union College recently enhanced its long-standing commitment to technology and engineering by approving a new interdisciplinary initiative called Converging Technologies (CT). The goal of the CT initiative is to bring together students and faculty from engineering and the liberal arts to examine problems that occur at the intersections of traditional disciplines. This will enable students to graduate with a broad background that goes beyond that provided by their major. This is being done while maintaining our commitment to science and engineering fundamentals, and in the context of our liberal arts tradition - teaching occurs in small classes and laboratories, teachers and students interact closely, undergraduate research is prized, and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. This project involves the merging of two traditional disciplines ? one in the sciences and one in engineering - and will contribute to our CT focus on nanotechnology. The Union College Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering Departments have a demonstrated history of excellence in introducing students to research at a formative stage of their academic careers, providing students with coursework that provides the necessary background for success in graduate studies, and placing these students successfully in graduate programs and industrial positions. As a result, these departments have had an impact on the scientific infrastructure of this nation. Already, 39 undergraduate students in mechanical engineering, chemistry, and biochemistry have performed aerogel related research in association with the lab. Eighteen of these students are women, two of whom are members of underrepresented minority groups; six of the men are international students. Eighty percent of the senior thesis students have gone on to full-time graduate school in engineering- or chemistry-related fields. The PIs on this award will continue to involve undergraduate students in their research, including students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and to encourage their students to consider graduate studies in engineering- and science-related fields and careers in research.
