Aerogels

Jochen Fricke is scientific consultant at the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAE) in Würzburg, Germany, and member of the advisory board of va-Q-tec AG, a company specialized on energy efficient vacuum isolation panels. His research interests started in nuclear energy and went on to renewables. He received his PhD at the Technical University of Munich, followed by post-doc research in Munich and Pittsburgh. In 1975 he became professor at the University of Würzburg, where he is still giving lectures on energy. He was appointed as founding director of the CAE in 1991 and in 2006 he was appointed as spokesperson for the Bavarian Energy Technology Cluster. Jochen Fricke was honoured with several prizes, among them the 'Medal for Scientific Publication' by the German Physical Society.

I Introduction.- Aerogels - a Fascinating Class of High-Performance Porous Solids.- II Production and General Aspects.- Aerogels of Inorganic Oxides.- Advances in Production of Transparent Silica Aerogels for Window Glazings.- Large-Scale Production of Airglass.- Aerogels: Precursors or End Materials?.- The Sol-Gel Process for Non-Metallic Inorganic Materials.- Synthesis and Structure of Borate Based Aerogels.- Preparation, Densification and Characterization of Autoclave Dried SiO2 Gels.- Microporous Silica Fibres.- III Energy Conservation and Thermal Properties.- Translucent Insulation for Passive Solar Energy Utilization in Buildings.- Thermal Transport in Porous Superinsulations.- Thermal Conductivity of SiO2-Aerogel Tiles.- Radiative Heat Transfer in Silica Aerogel.- Thermal Conductivity of Granular SiO2 Aerogel.- Thermal Properties of Silica Aerogel.- Solar Transmission of Aerogel Pellets.- Aerogel as a Transparent Thermal Insulation Material for Buildings.- IV Structural Aspects.- Microstructural Properties of Transparent Silica Aerogels.- Pore Size Distribution of Silica Systems.- Microstructure of Silica Based Aerogel Using High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy.- Structural Analysis of Granular Silica Aerogels.- Mechanical and Acoustic Properties of Silica Aerogel.- V Applications.- Aerogel in High Energy Physics.- Silica Aerogel and Space Astrophysics.- On Some Recent Applications of Aerogels.- Index of Contributors.