Evacuated aerogel glazings

This paper describes the main characteristics of monolithic silica aerogel and its application in evacuated superinsulating aerogel glazing including the evacuation and assembling process. Furthermore, the energetic benefit of aerogel glazing is quantified. In evacuated aerogel glazing the space between the glass panes is filled with monolithic silica aerogel evacuated to a rough vacuum of approximately 1-10 hPa. The aerogel glazing does not depend on use of low emissive coatings that have the drawback of absorbing a relatively large part of the solar radiation that otherwise could reduce the space heating demand in residential buildings. The U-value of the glazing can be designed to meet the required value by increasing the monolithic silica aerogel thickness without the need for additional layers of glass. An aerogel glazing with 20 mm glass distance can reach a U-value below 0.5 W/(m(2) K) combined with a solar energy transmittance above 0.75. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.