At present, silica aerogel is the solid material with the best thermal insulation performance. Due to its brittleness, different doping methods are generally adopted to improve the mechanical properties. At present, the application of related products has covered scientific research, industry, national defense and other thermal insulation occasions, especially aerospace and navigation fields, but also can be used in a variety of civil and industrial fields, the following are some application forms of silica aerogel.

1、Aerogel blanket

Composites prepared by fiber reinforced method are commonly known as aerogel MATS. At present, silica aerogel felt is mainly used in thermal insulation of buildings.Compared with the traditional wall insulation materials such as rock wool, brick and fiber in the market, aerogel felt not only has excellent thermal insulation performance, but also has corresponding mechanical strength, which can meet the thermal insulation and strength requirements of wall insulation.Even more, silica aerogel is made into a sandwich structure so that it can be directly applied to the exterior wall insulation.

2、Insulating glass

At present, China has become the world's first glass curtain wall production and use of the country, although there are excellent lighting and beautiful advantages, but the glass wall because of the characteristics of heat absorption and reflection, but also cause building energy consumption is too high.However, if aerogel is added to the glass curtain wall, the thermal insulation ability of the building can be increased and the energy consumption of the glass curtain wall building can be reduced without affecting the original lighting and aesthetic conditions of the glass.I have used porous silicon aerogel to fill the middle layer of glass, and found that the heat insulation performance was indeed enhanced, thus showing the broad market prospect of silicon aerogel window, which is expected to become a powerful tool for energy saving and emission reduction in the future.

3、Thermal insulation coating/film

At present, the research on aerogel in coating/film field is gradually carried out.In terms of coatings, Lu Bin et al. from Central South University used to mix silica aerogel with water-based acrylic resin to prepare insulating coatings for glass. Gao Shuya et al. used to mix silica aerogel with epoxy resin to prepare aerogel composite material.In terms of film, Ni Xingyuan et al. produced a heat preservation and insulation film composite of metal aluminum film and silica aerogel, which improved its heat preservation and insulation effect by five times.

The importance of "heat insulation" in improving energy utilization efficiency and realizing energy saving and reduction of consumption and emission reduction is obvious. Therefore, the study on the application of silica aerogel in heat insulation material is of great significance for realizing the efficient utilization of resources and energy, energy saving and reduction of consumption and emission reduction.It remains to be seen whether it has more untapped power.