Skip to main content
  • Paul Scherrer Institut PSI
  • PSI Research, Labs & User Services

Digital User Office

  • Digital User Office
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Search
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)

Hauptnavigation

  • Research at PSIOpen mainmenu item
    • Research Initiatives
    • Ethics and Research integrity
    • Scientific Highlights
    • Scientific Events
    • Scientific Career
    • PSI-FELLOW
    • PSI Data Policy
  • Research Divisions and LabsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Research with Neutrons and Muons
    • Photon Science
    • Energy and Environment
    • Nuclear Energy and Safety
    • Biology and Chemistry
    • Scientific Computing, Theory and Data
    • Large Research Facilities
  • Facilities and InstrumentsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Facilities
    • PSI Facility Newsletter
  • PSI User ServicesOpen mainmenu item
    • User Office
    • Methods at the PSI User Facilities
    • Proposals for beam time
    • Proposal Deadlines
    • Data Analysis Service (PSD)
    • EU support programmes
  • New ProjectsOpen mainmenu item
    • SLS 2.0
    • IMPACT
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR

Digital User Office (mobile)

  • Digital User Office

You are here:

  1. PSI Home
  2. Labs & User Services
  3. PSD
  4. LSB
  5. X-Ray Tomography
  6. Scientific Highlights
  7. 3D printing silica aerogels at the micrometer scale

Secondary navigation

X-Ray Tomography Group

  • People
    • Alumni
  • Research
    • Synchrotron X-ray Tomography
    • Translational X-ray Imaging
    • X-ray Optics Design and Fabrication
  • Teaching and Education
    • Student Projects
  • Scientific Highlights
  • News
  • Publications
  • Download
18 August 2020

3D printing silica aerogels at the micrometer scale

3D volume rendering of aerogel
3D volume rendering with the low-density aerogel matrix shown (left) and removed (right).

Silica aerogels are excellent thermal insulators but are too brittle to obtain complex geometries and spatial functionalities by subtractive manufacturing. Researchers from Empa and ETH Zürich have now succeeded in printing very precise structures thanks to a new 3D direct ink writing process using a slurry of silica aerogel powder in a dilute silica nanoparticle suspension. The printed structures can be of the size of a tenth of a millimeter. The rheology of the ink can be adapted, making it flexible for different kinds of usage. They have a thermal conductivity < 16 mW/(m*K), making them very good thermal insulators, as demonstrated in the publication. These results were published in Nature on August 18, 2020.

This new 3D printing process opens the door to new applications in microelectronics and precision engineering. The printed structures can be used as thermal shielding or as functional materials, for example, as printed aerogel membrane. Different aerogels compositions are under investigation thanks to X-ray phase contrast imaging at the TOMCAT beamline.

Original Publication

Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels, S Zhao, G Siqueira, S Drdova, D Norris, C Ubert, A Bonnin, S Galmarini, M Ganobjak, Z Pan, S Brunner, G Nyström, J Wang, MM Koebel, WJ Malfait, Nature 584, 387–392(2020).

Contact

Dr. Anne Bonnin
Beamline Scientist, Swiss Light Source
Paul Scherrer Institut
Telephone: +41 56 310 4678
E-mail: anne.bonnin@psi.ch

Sidebar

top

Footer

Paul Scherrer Institut

Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

Telephone: +41 56 310 21 11
Telefax: +41 56 310 21 99

How to find us
Contact

Visitor Centre psi forum
School Lab iLab (in German)
Center for Proton Therapy
PSI Education Centre
PSI Guest House
PSI Gastronomie (in German)
psi forum shop

Service & Support

  • Phone Book
  • User Office
  • Accelerator Status
  • PSI Publications
  • Suppliers
  • E-Billing
  • Computing
  • Safety (in German)

Career

  • Working at PSI
  • Job Opportunities
  • Training and further education
  • Career Center
  • Vocational Training (in German)
  • PSI Education Center

For the media

  • PSI in brief
  • Facts and Figures
  • Media corner
  • Media Releases
  • Social Media

Follow us: Twitter (in English) LinkedIn Youtube Facebook Instagram Issuu RSS

Footer legal

  • Imprint
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Editors' login