AEROGEL – A Promising Building Material for Sustainable Buildings

Abstract

The sustainable buildings can be defined as efficient buildings from the point of view of maintenance and operation costs, and of which value increases in time, through positive impact on the natural and social environment. The aim of rendering buildings sustainable can be achieved only by the production of new advanced materials, and by using them, especially at the glass surfaces, for more resistant envelopes at different external actions which may increase considerably the durability period of a building and may increase the energy efficiency through a high level thermal insulation. This paper, aims to explore the possibility of the use of Aerogels as a building material with reference to its chemical, physical characteristics and performance. The paper presents also an analytical application demonstrates that it is supposed to be an expensive method initially but is more advantageous, considering the low costs afterwards, mainly, because of reduced energy consumption. It talks about chemical adaptation of Aerogels for optical applications, chemical adaptation of Aerogels to thermal insulation and its various applications in Building Industry.

Keywords: aerogel, sustainable building,, thermal insulation, life cycle costs