Glass fiber reinforced calcium-crosslinked PAA aerogel composites for super-insulating buildings with low cost

Abstract In order to overcome the challenge of balancing the cost and performance of building insulation materials, this paper presents the preparation of low-cost calcium-crosslinked PAA aerogels. The raw materials used to prepare the aerogels were calcium chloride, polyacrylic acid, and propylene oxide. The aerogels were further compounded with glass fiber mats to enhance their practical applications. The results demonstrate that the calcium-crosslinked PAA aerogels exhibit a high specific surface area (136.95 m 2 /g) and exceptional thermal stability (90% retention of pore volume after calcination at 300 °C for 2 h). Furthermore, the glass fiber reinforced composites demonstrat ultralow thermal conductivity at room temperature (0.0283 W/(m·K)) and high compressive strength (0.79 MPa@70% strain). Infrared thermography experiments substantiat that the cold surface temperature could be stabilized at 77.4 °C when the heat source temperature is 300 °C, demonstrating excellent heat preservation capability. This research is anticipated to be extensively utilized in building insulation, owing to its low cost and superior performance.