Introduction:
Aerogel, born in the 1930s, went from being ignored because of its high cost to today's downstream industry. What kind of "revolution" did aerogel undergo during this period? Let's take a look at the rise of aerogel.
Aerogel, look at this unfamiliar term, we don't necessarily know what it is. But we can understand it through examples from our lives. First of all, let's meet the gel, we often eat tofu, jelly and so on is gel. If the space occupied by water inside them is replaced by air through a certain drying technique, they are aerogel form.
Simple understanding, the conventional definition of general aerogel is through the sol-gel method, with a certain drying method, so that the gas replaces the liquid in the gel, so as to form a nanoscale porous solid material.
Nowadays, the preparation technology of aerogel has been greatly improved. The core is to remove the solvent in the gel under the action of surface tension, while keeping the three-dimensional nanonetwork structure of the gel intact. This structure is also one of the key factors that give the aerogel itself a variety of performance advantages.
However, "the glow of gold" also needs time to precipitate, artificial power, aerogel from 1931 to today, but also across the difficulties. From this small solid material, we look back on its development process, and we will know that it is "hard-won".
What started out as a bet between two scientists led to the creation of aerogel. Since then, aerogels have gone through four industrialization stages, and today we are witnessing the fourth industrialization stage of aerogels.

The first industrialization of aerogel was in the early 1940s, the United States Monsanto company produced aerogel powder to be used as cosmetics, napalm thickener, etc., but eventually failed due to high manufacturing costs and lagging application development.
The second industrialization took place in the 1980s, and there were typical representatives of different technical directions in this stage. With the emergence of supercritical technologies such as Swedish company's methanol supercritical technology, American company's CO₂ supercritical technology, and German company's atmospheric pressure drying technology, people continue to explore more possibilities on aerogel. In 2003, Tongji University in China began to publish research papers on atmospheric pressure drying, and Chinese technical workers gradually increased their investment in the field of atmospheric pressure drying, which is an important step toward the exploration of aerogel in China.
The third industrialization is quite a representative node. In the early 21st century, the United States Aspen Aerogel successfully commercialized aerogel, and applied it to aerospace military and petrochemical fields, which was favored by the market. This is a prototype of the commercialization of aerogel, after the aerogel insulation felt, powder and other products were officially put into use, the wave of aerogel increasingly surging, China also began to engage in the industrialization of aerogel materials research enterprises.
Today, we are experiencing the fourth industrialization of aerogel. With the maturation of aerogel preparation technology, the reduction of process cost and the expansion of industrial scale, the aerogel market is becoming more and more mature, and more and more enterprises are entering this track. From the continuous development of industrial equipment pipeline energy saving, new energy vehicle safety protection, building fire insulation and other application markets, to the importance of aerogels because of policies, energy saving and other factors, aerogels have been constantly moving to a new level.
Reviewing the industrialization process of aerogel, several setbacks are closely related to the insufficient development of market demand and high cost. To today's fourth industrialization, aerogel has made considerable breakthroughs, even though cost is still a key consideration; However, with the expansion of application fields, the increase of market demand and the breakthrough of preparation technology, the popularization of aerogels can be expected soon.