Waste cotton fabric used to fabricate affordable aerogels that control haemorrhaging

Aerogels are among the lightest materials in the world and are highly porous with strong absorption capacity and low thermal conductivity. They are also costly to produce, hindering widespread utilisation.

Now, Associate Professor Hai Minh Duong and Professor Nhan Phan-Thien from NUS’ Department of Mechanical Engineering have led a research team in the development of novel cotton aerogels that are easily compressed and quickly recover up to 97 per cent of their original size when placed in water.

Assoc Prof Duong said: “This new eco-friendly cotton aerogel is a major improvement from the aerogel that our team had previously developed using paper waste. It is highly compressible, hence storage and transportation costs could be greatly reduced.

“Furthermore, these cotton aerogels can be fabricated within eight hours – this is nine times faster than our earlier invention and about 20 times faster than current commercial fabrication processes. They are also stronger, making them more suitable for mass production.