New technologies development demands the creation of new materials with specific properties.  Due to its excellent flexibility and resistance mechanical compression, silica aerogel is a promising material for many applications ranging from aerospace to tissue engineering. Low density and small pore size structures are generally achieved through long and non-automatized fabrication processes. Moreover, there is no control of the three-dimensional structure as it fits the container. This may be addressed by the integration of an automatic fabrication method during the gel synthesis process. Here, we propose a new method to control the silica gel gelation by a 3D printer, thus allowing the fabrication of customized structures depending on the application needed.

Novel three-dimensional printing system for flexible silica aerogel synthesis

256th National Meeting (2018)

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