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.

A material with a scaffold comprising a series of at least partially spaced fibers and gas vesicles locates between fibers. The gas vesicles comprise external anchoring modules that are effective to anchor the gas vesicles to the fibers.

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.

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 present disclosure belongs to the technical field of gel material processing, and discloses processing equipment and a processing technology of a gel microsphere material. The processing equipment comprises a mixing barrel, wherein a motor is installed at the top of the mixing barrel; a rotating rod is arranged in the mixing barrel; the rotating rod is fixedly connected to the output end of the motor; a fan-shaped impeller is installed at the bottom end of the rotating rod; the bottom of the rotating rod communicates with a gas conveying pipe; a shunting ring is fixedly connected to the inner side wall of the mixing barrel; the bottom of the rotating rod is fixedly connected with the fan-shaped impeller; and the gas conveying pipe is arranged at the bottom of the mixing barrel to inflate a raw material solution in the mixing barrel, when bubbles float in the solution, the solution can be stirred, and then under the cooperation of the fan-shaped impeller at the bottom of the rotating rod, the raw material solution of the gel microsphere material is stirred more quickly and more uniformly in the mixing barrel compared with the raw material solution only stirred by the fan-shaped impeller.

The present invention provides a fiber-reinforced aerogel material which can be used as insulation in thermal battery applications. The fiber-reinforced aerogel material is highly durable, flexible, and has a thermal performance that exceeds the insulation materials currently used in thermal battery applications. The fiber-reinforced aerogel insulation material can be as thin as 1 mm less, and can have a thickness variation as low as 2% or less. Also provided is a method for improving the performance of a thermal battery by incorporating a reinforced aerogel material into the thermal battery. Further provided is a casting method for producing thin fiber-reinforced aerogel materials.

To provide methods for producing a wet gel and a xerogel, in which variation in gel thickness is little even without highly controlling the levelness of the mold and the gels are less likely to break at the time of gelation or demolding. The method for producing a wet gel comprises, in such a state that a second liquid layer 14 made of a second liquid containing a gel raw material, is present on a first liquid layer 12 made of a first liquid, letting the second liquid layer 14 be gelled. The method for producing a xerogel comprises drying the wet gel thereby produced or a solvent-substituted gel obtainable by subjecting said wet gel to solvent substitution.

Embodiments of the present invention provide users with a system and method for manufacturing water-based hydrophobic aerogels and aerogel composites. The system and method can be carried out in a manner which is more rapid than typical ways and can be readily scalable. The method of manufacture is useful for producing water based hydrophobic aerogels and aerogel composites on a large scale with good homogeneity and consistency. Advantageously, the method of manufacture also has the benefit of a shorter processing time due to the vacuum homogenizing and mixing processes, the use of microwave assisted vacuum freeze drying for ease of synthesis of water-based hydrophobic aerogels.

Manufacturing a low-K dielectric organic/inorganic aerogel composite material and its application are provided. The manufacturing method comprises: (1) mixing; (2) hydrolysis; (3) condensation; (4) aging; (5) drying; (6) impregnating polymer solution; (7) phase separation and drying; and (8) cross-linking and curing. The manufacturing method can produce a low-K dielectric organic/inorganic aerogel composite material having a high strength. The low-K dielectric aerogel is in a porous structure, and its porosity is higher than 70% and its density is from 0.12 g/cm.sup.3 to 0.45 g/cm.sup.3. The dielectric property of the low-K dielectric aerogel decreases along with an increase of its porosity, wherein a dielectric constant thereof is from 1.28 to 1.89, and a dielectric loss thereof is from 0.052 to 0.023. The low-k dielectric aerogel can be used for a dielectric layer in a high-frequency circuit, an insulation layer in a semiconductor device or a microwave circuit in a communication integrated circuit.

Devices and methods for the high-pressure treatment of bulk material by extraction and/or impregnation. The bulk material is arranged in the interior volume of a pressure vessel device and is treated at a high pressure while sealed off from the surroundings. The high-pressure treatment is performed batchwise in a closed system in the pressure vessel device in a pressure-tight fashion. The bulk material is fed batchwise to the interior volume with the pressure vessel device closed and being arranged on at least one treatment level and, after the high-pressure treatment has occurred, being discharged batchwise from the interior volume with the pressure vessel device closed. The invention furthermore relates to the use of a supporting tray module with at least one treatment level for the high-pressure treatment in a closed system.