Quartzene – A promising thermal insulator : Studies of thermal conductivity’s dependence of density and compression of Quartzene^® in the form of powder.

Sammanfattning:

The purpose of this project was to study Svenska Aerogel AB’s product Quartzene^®, and develop its capacity as a thermal insulator. Quartzene^® is a silica based mesoporous material developed by Svenska Aerogel AB, with properties similar to aerogels produced by the sol-gel process. In this report, the correlation between pore structure and thermal conductivity in the material has been studied using techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam, finite element simulations and transient plane source. Its properties are interesting because of the expanding market of insulated vacuum panels; in which Svenska Aerogel AB wish to expand to. It was found that the pore sizes of M21-BU increased after compression, and the pore sizes of M4-0-2 decreased. The pore sizes of M21-BU became so large that the Knudsen effect is no longer of interest, and that could explain the different behaviors in thermal conductivity.