Application of Polymer-Based Aerogel Composites in Building Insulation

Release time: 2025/12/23 Publisher： original Views：

According to the data released by the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency, the total carbon emissions throughout the entire process of buildings account for over 50% of the national carbon emissions. Applying high-performance insulation materials in areas with significant heat loss, such as building walls and roofs, is an important step in reducing carbon emissions. The thermal conductivity of aerogel composites is as low as below 0.020 W/(m∙K). Its nanoporous network structure can restrict the heat transfer effectively, and it possesses excellent properties such as flame retardancy and high-temperature resistance. It has broad application prospects in building carbon neutrality.

The outcome of 2024 NEXCEL TDA Project, titled “Development and demonstration of polymer-based aerogel composites”, carried out by Nanjing Tech University and Jiangsu Anjia New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., has been successfully applied in the North Garden Student Apartment of Nanjing Tech University. The remarkable effect provides a good demonstration effect for the application of aerogel insulation materials in the buildings.

The North Garden Student Apartment of Nanjing Tech University is a Three-Star Green Building & High-Quality Green Building Demonstration Project in Jiangsu Province. This "A"-shaped building not only provides a comfortable living space for students, but also becomes a "living laboratory" for exploring the zero-carbon transformation of buildings. This demonstration is located on the roof and the west-facing exterior wall of the building (Figure 1). The application replaces the thermosetting composite board (TSCB) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) board with polymer-based aerogel composite (PSAC) board.

Figure 1 Application scheme of PSAC board in the North Garden Student Apartment of Nanjing Tech University

The PSAC board possesses excellent properties including low thermal conductivity of 0.020 W/(m·K), fire rating of A2, and has hydrophobicity of 99%. It can be constructed using traditional exterior wall insulation schemes without any additional costs (Figure 2). Under the conditions where the thickness of the exterior wall insulation layer (20 mm) and the temperature of the exterior surface of the wall (70 °C) are the same, the temperature of the interior wall surface with PSAC board as the insulation material is 6 °C lower than that with XPS board (Figure 3), which can significantly improve the thermal insulation performance of the wall.

Figure 2 Construction site of PSAC board

Figure 3 The insulation performances of PSAC and XPS boards for wall insulation

The demonstration application of PSAC marks a new stage of large-scale application for aerogel insulation materials in green buildings. With the decline in material costs and the maturity of construction techniques in the future, the application and promotion of aerogel composites will play a significant role in accelerating energy conservation and carbon reduction in the buildings, and promoting the green and low-carbon high-quality development.