Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Description
Aerogels are among the best known thermally insulating materials due their high porosities (>90%). This, in conjunction with their high transparency make them ideal candidates for highly insulating window coatings. However, current state of the art techniques involve time-consuming drying steps and poor mechanical robustness, severely limiting their wide-scale adaptation.

Aerogels are among the best known thermally insulating materials due their high porosities (>90%). This, in conjunction with their high transparency make them ideal candidates for highly insulating window coatings. However, current state of the art techniques involve time-consuming drying steps and poor mechanical robustness, severely limiting their wide-scale adaptation. By using a dry aerosol impaction process, synthesizing nanoparticles in a plasma, upstream of a slit-shaped nozzle and impacting these particles onto a substrate below, a novel way for producing mesoporous silica aerogels is shown. This removes the need for solution-based processing, improving the potential for high throughput. Thick (~100um), 90% mesoporous silica has been characterized showing low effective thermal conductivity (~0.02 W/mK) and high transparency (>90%). The morphology of these coatings were analyzed showing tight pore distributions. Film adhesion and stress have shown themselves to be major hurdles during the development of these coatings and will be the focus of future work.
ContributorsRodkey, Nathan Jacques (Author) / Holman, Zachary (Thesis director) / Bryan, Jonathan (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05