Silica aerogels were first discovered by Professor Samuel Kistler who was a known educator and also very active in the research field. He has authored many scientific articles and technical books within his years of teaching at the University of Utah. Before retiring Dr. Kistler self-published his nonscientific Memorabilia in the University of Utah Library, which include his life story pertaining to his research and teaching history at the university. Dr. Kistler always had an interest in supercritical fluids. He completed his master thesis at Stanford in 1922, which advocated the crystallization of amino acids from supercritical fluids. The lack of publications of research makes it hard to distinguish when Kistler’s work on aerogels was actually done but it is noted that Kistler did research with Professor McBain publishing a paper on the first wet gels. Kistler started working on the production of aerogel during his summers at Stanford since they were a better equipped University. Kistler premiered his work on aerogel while teaching at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, California. The first publication on aerogel was issued in Nature year 1931.
The first large scale production unit for silica aerogel operations plant is located in Monsanto Chemical Company in Boston, Massachusetts. The first product is a light solid that contains more than 95% air volume. “Silica aerogels are highly porous 3D nanostructures and have exhibited excellent physio-chemical properties. The silica aerogel has a low thermal conductivity, high surface area, and good chemical stability,” says Simulation and Analysis of Mechanical Properties of Silica Aerogels: From Rationalization to Prediction.
2.2 Design Process
Silica aerogels have a density of 1.8 pounds per cubic foot. Silica aerogels consist of a solution of sodium silicate to sulphuric acid. According to Monsanto aerogel plant appeared in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering February 1943 p.144, “Concentrations are controlled to yield a gel having 8 percent silica. After aging several hours to allow the gel to strengthen, due to syneresis phenomena, it is removed from the tank and passed through the roll crusher into one of four wash tanks. Water is passed up through this tank over the gel to remove the sodium sulfate formed in the gel preparation reaction. When the gel has been sufficiently washed, all excess water is removed by draining and the g