Aerogel-based components and systems for electric vehicle thermal management are provided. Exemplary embodiments include a heat control member. The heat control member can include reinforced aerogel compositions that are durable and easy to handle, have favorable performance for use as heat control members and thermal barriers for batteries, have favorable insulation properties, and have favorable reaction to fire, combustion and flame-resistance properties. Also provided are methods of preparing or manufacturing such reinforced aerogel compositions. In certain embodiments, the composition has a silica-based aerogel framework reinforced with a fiber and including one or more opacifying additives.

A composite aerogel material includes a carbonized aerogel defining a 3D porous structure and a silicon-based material dispersed within the 3D porous structure, wherein the silicon-based material includes at least 70% by mass fraction. A method of manufacturing a composite aerogel material includes mixing water, an acrylonitrile monomer, silicon particles, a surfactant, a thermal polymerization initiator, and a solvent and heating as a solution. The solution is quenched, wherein a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) silicon nanoparticle micro bead gel precipitates from the solution. A solvent exchange then occurs to form a silicon-based aerogel material, which is then freeze dried. The silicon-based aerogel material is carbonized to form a composite aerogel material comprising a carbonized aerogel defining a 3D porous structure and a silicon-based material dispersed within pores of the carbonized aerogel.

An apparatus for manufacturing an aerogel sheet including: a supply roller around which a blanket is wound to form a roll; a conveyor belt transferring the blanket wound around the supply roller from one side to the other side thereof; a silica sol supply member injecting the silica sol to a surface of the blanket disposed on the conveyor belt to impregnate the blanket with silica sol; a catalyst supply member injecting a gelling catalyst to the surface of the blanket impregnated with silica sol to gelate the silica sol; a collection roller winding the blanket, which is transferred up to the other side by the conveyor belt, in the form of a roll; and a reaction vessel which accommodates the roll-shaped blanket collected by the collection roller and in which the accommodated blanket is aged, modified by injecting a coating solution, or dried at a high temperature.

An ink composition for additive manufacture of silica aerogel objects essentially consists of a gellable silica sol containing an admixture of 30 to 70 vol.% of a mesoporous silica powder in a base solvent. The mesoporous silica powder has a particle size range of 0.001 to 1 mm and a tap density of 30 to 200 kg/m3 and comprises at least 10% by weight of silica aerogel powder. The composition has a yield stress in the range of 30 to 3000 Pa and a viscosity of 5 to 150 Pa.Math.s at a shear rate of 50 s−1. Furthermore, the composition has shear thinning properties defined as a reduction in viscosity by a factor between 10 and 103 for an increase in shear rate by a factor of 104 to 105. A method of additive manufacturing of a three-dimensional silica aerogel object by direct ink writing comprises providing such ink composition, forcing the same through a convergent nozzle, thereby forming a jet of the ink composition which is directed in such manner as to form a three-dimensional object by additive manufacturing. After initiating and carrying out gelation of the gellable silica sol constituting said object, a drying step yields the desired three-dimensional silica aerogel object.

The current disclosure provides reinforced aerogel compositions that are durable and easy to handle, have favorable performance in aqueous environments, have favorable insulation properties, and have favorable, reaction to fire, combustion and flame-resistance properties. Also provided are methods of preparing or manufacturing such reinforced aerogel compositions. In certain embodiments, the composition has a silica-based aerogel framework, reinforced with an open-cell macroporous framework, and includes one or more fire-class additives, where the silica-based aerogel framework comprises at least one hydrophobic-bound silicon and the composition or each of its components has desired properties.

This invention concerns a method for the manufacture of a granulated aerogel (1) from a precursor (2), comprising the following steps: mixing the precursor (2) with a synthetic solvent (3) and a hydrolysis agent such as water, and if appropriate a catalyst (4), to obtain a gel, granulating the resulting product, in particular by cutting a jet of said gel, to produce granules, maintaining the granules in contact with the synthetic solvent (3) and the hydrolysis agent, washing the granules by adding a washing solvent to extract in particular the hydrolysis agent and, if appropriate, the catalyst (4), drying of the granules to extract the synthetic solvents (3) and/or washing solvents by sending them supercritical CO.sub.2 in excess, the steps of granulating, maintaining, washing and drying being carried out at a pressure higher than that of the critical point of CO.sub.2, and these conditions being maintained between these steps. The present invention also concerns an installation specially configured to implement the method according to the invention.

Provided is a hydrophobic silica aerogel blanket comprising holes, so that the diffusion of a surface modifier is facilitated in a blanket during a surface modification process to improve the efficiency of surface modification. Accordingly, the hydrophobic silica aerogel has not only excellent physical properties such as specific surface area and thermal conductivity, but also a controlled degree of hydrophobicity, and thus, can have high hydrophobicity.

Disclosed herein are methods for the preparation of porous metal oxide materials, including metal oxide xerogels and metal oxide aerogels. Methods for preparing porous metal oxide materials can comprise (i) reacting a metal alkoxide with water in the presence of a catalyst system to form a partially hydrolyzed sol, (ii) contacting the partially hydrolyzed sol with a base catalyst and a non-aqueous solvent to form a precursor gel; and (iii) drying the precursor gel to form the porous metal oxide material. The catalyst system employed in step (i) comprises a combination of a weak acid and a strong acid.

The present invention provides an aerogel blanket including a blanket base, aerogel coupled on the surface of the blanket base, and aerogel located at a space between the blanket bases, the aerogel coupled on the surface of the blanket base is 50 wt % based on the total weight of aerogel, wherein the aerogel blanket has the number of aerogel particles separated from the aerogel blanket ranging from 13,600 to 90,000 per ft.sup.3, when vibrating the aerogel blanket at a frequency of 1 Hz to 30 Hz for 2 hours to 10 hours.

The system for preparing silica aerogel according to the present invention comprises a raw material supply part transferring at least one raw material of de-ionized water, water glass, a surface modifier, an inorganic acid, and an organic solvent to a mixing part, the mixing part mixing the raw materials transferred from the raw material supply part to produce silica wet gel, a drying part drying the silica wet gel to produce the silica aerogel, a recovery part recovering a portion of the vaporized raw material of the raw materials used in at least one of the mixing part and the drying part, and a heat transfer part transferring heat to at least one of the mixing part and the drying part, wherein the system further comprises a pulverizing part that pulverizes the raw material from the row material supply part to the mixing part.