Benefits

Quartzene offers a range of key qualities that are used to improve other materials in various ways. Quartzene can even give materials completely new properties, and often it contributes to a combination of valuable properties in one and the same solution. Here you can read more about the benefits of Quartzene.

Thermal Insulation
Heat reflective
Fire resistant
Porous
Low Density
Acoustic Insulation
Controlled release
Hydrophobic
Hydrophilic
Less Energy
Adsorption
Absorption

Quartzene consists of a skeleton of amorph silicate. In between the skeleton there are almost countless pores in the range of 2 to 70nm in size. Due to the specific poor size, it is known as a mesoporous material. The high porosity makes the Quartzene extremely light since only 5% of the volume is solid material and the rest is air.

The porosity creates an effect, known as the Knudsen effect, that the air molecules collide with the pore wall instead of other air molecules. This limits the convection of heat transfer through Quartzene. The very narrow silicate skeleton has poor heat conductivity. These two facts combined result in a highly thermal insulating material.

Quartzene consists of a skeleton of amorph silicate. In between the skeleton there are almost countless pores in the range of 2nm to 70 nm in size. Due to the specific poor size, it is known as a mesoporous material. The high porosity makes the Quartzene extremely light since only 5% of the volume is solid material and the rest is air.

The porosity creates an effect, known as the Knudsen effect, that the air molecules collide with the pore wall instead of other air molecules. This limits the convection of heat transfer through Quartzene. The very narrow silicate skeleton has poor heat conductivity. These two facts combined result in a highly thermal insulating material.

This is the natural state of the silica Quartzene particle. The hydrophilic particles are very easy to incorporate in water borne systems, like for enhancing fire properties in intumescent coatings.

The hydrophilic particles are the lightest particles since their skeletons are only silicon dioxide and not surface modified. Therefore, this can be one important aspect in lightweight application.

The hydrophilic particles can withstand very high temperatures, up to 900 °C and even higher if some breakdown is accepted, and they are completely non-combustible.

The Quartzene can be made hydrophobic by adding methyl groups on the surfaces of the particles. By creating a hydrophobic particle, it can be incorporated in different ways than the hydrophilic types.

In for example water borne insulating coatings, the hydrophobicity is essential to keep the water out of the particles so that the air is kept in the pores and the thermal insulating effect will remain. When the paint film is dry, the hydrophobicity of the particle will continue to keep the water out of the particles so that the insulating effect remains even in outdoor applications.

The hydrophobic surfaces also help to repel water and promotes good compatibility with several binders. 

Since Quartzene has a very high surface area and pore volume, the particles have a lot of space where material can be adsorbed, meaning sticking to the surface of it. The internal surface of Quartzene can be more than 500 m2 surface per gram material, making it powerful for surface-controlled applications. For the hydrophilic material grade, there are numerous of hydroxy-groups on the outside to interact with while the hydrophobic material grade contains methyl groups, giving Quartzene a flexibility for use in a wide range of applications.

In the spectra of natural sunlight, it is the invisible infrared (IR) part that generates heat. The IR part represents more than half of the energy of the total sunlight radiation. Infrared radiation can be either absorbed or emitted by molecules, and this determines whether they are heated or not. Quartzene has an extremely high Solar Reflective Index, SRI, measured to 123 for a formulated cool roof coating containing 12.5 wt% of Quartzene Z2H1TP in the liquid coating. This demonstrates that Quartzene is an ideal filler for coatings and plasters where the combination of insulation and heat reflection is desired.

Thermal conductivity in a material depends on three key mechanisms: 

  1. the possibility for included air or gas to transfer heat by its physical movement – convection
  2. the heat conducted in the solid material itself – heat conductivity
  3. heat transfer by the means of radiation. 

Quartzene is designed to minimize contribution from all these mechanisms. The pore size is kept in a small and narrow range whereby the physical movement of the air molecules is so restricted, that it does not allow them to collide and thereby transfer the heat from one to another. This is called the Knudsen effect. Heat conductivity in the solid phase is kept at a minimum, partly due to the very low solid content but also because silica itself has a modest conductivity. Finally, heat transfer in the infrared radiation (IR) range is low as Quartzene reflects the radiation. All in all, this makes Quartzene an ideal material to add to thermal insulating products.

Quartzene is an inorganic material in its pure hydrophilic form. The hydrophobic grades contain some hydrocarbons which are covalently bonded to the surface to provide the water-repelling feature. All grades are, however, non-combustible and can thus be used to improve the fire resistance of less resistant materials. The obtained effect will be a combination of thermal insulation and resistance to fire. Quartzene can ideally be added as a filler in the product matrix or in a coating on the outside of the product. 

Quartzene can be used as a functional carrier or device to encapsulate specific substances which will be released at a lower rate than if the substance was freely mixed into the product. Svenska Aerogel’s patented process allows for several options to include substances into the structure of Quartzene, and the release rate is slowed down by the fact that the substance is distributed throughout the whole mesoporous structure. Release will thereby be dependent on speed of solution and diffusion of the substance. This function can be applied to, for instance, antifouling products such as our SeaQare® grade and to pharmaceutical products.

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