Case Western Reserve University researchers have created patented clay aerogel composites, a line of foam-like and environmentally friendly polymers, which can take on the shape and size of any container that can hold water.
"The flexibility of the clay aerogel composites is amazing," says Schiraldi, associate professor and associate chair of the university's Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering
The clay aerogel undergoes a chemical transformation when it is fired in a muffle furnace to 800 degrees centigrade. It can transform into a hard, lightweight ceramic. It can become a bendable material like rubber when mixed with latex and if magnetic materials are included in the clay concoction, it becomes a super-lightweight magnet. Moreover it could also be turned into an electrical conductor or a catalyst for chemical reactions, if combined with the right materials.
The clay aerogel composites can be produced inexpensively by using freeze-drying process.
Almost anyone can make this composite if one has pure clay in a form that resembles cat litter pellets, a blender and a $50,000 freeze dryer, says Schiraldi.
Schiraldi's had established a company called Aeroclay Inc. and had obtained the AeroClay® trademark for the range of possible products.
Schiraldi with a graduate student began this "extra unfunded project," to make these new kinds of polymer-based materials in year 2004 at Schiraldi's lab. Graduate student Matt Gawryla has since received a President's Opportunity Grant to expand clay aerogel composite experiments.
"We have put together an army of graduate and undergraduate researchers on a shoestring budget and produced a gold mine of papers and patents," said Schiraldi.
Aeoroclay materials feel and act like foam that too without injecting any gas bubbles or the use of environmentally unfriendly CFC blowing agents.
The group is now inclined towards trying more environmentally-friendly options, for instance they have created a bio-based polyamide by combining clay, water and the milk protein, casein, found in waste water left over from making cheese. This bio-based polyamide has insulating properties to withstand heat at temperatures of 300 degrees centigrade whereas contemporary used oil-based polymer foam insulation degrades at high temperatures.
The clay aerogel composites can insulate hundreds of miles of non-insulated piping carrying high-temperature materials throughout refineries.
The team has also experimented with the seaweed protein alginate used to thicken ice creams and materials from corn starch, but overall casein continues to produce a better product.