Silica Aerogel

Silica aerogels are prepared from gels by preparing a colloidal form of the material or Sol, which is called an 'aquasol' if the liquid phase is water and 'alcosol' if the liquid phase is an alcohol. The gels are formed from the sols and if the liquid which permeates the pores is water, the gel is termed an 'aquagel'. If it is an alcohol, the gel is termed an 'alcogel'.

Conventional Aerogel

- very porous and sponge-like silicon based nanomaterial
- superior insulating capabilities
- lightest and lowest density solid available
- chemically similar yet stronger than glass
- 99.8% air weighing only 3x air and 1000x less than glass
- particles with nanoscale size averaging 20-50nm
- holds 15 entries in the Guiness Book of World Records
- flexible and product forms, allowing for wide industry application

Drawbacks
- high production and raw material costs
- hazardous production process and usage of chemicals

Maerogel Innovation

Similar to Silica Aerogel
Countering Drawbacks and Adding Value
- mass commercial viable production costs
- waste product as raw material
- non-toxic and environmental friendly green technology

Property	Value
Apparent Density	0.03 g cm-3
Internal Surface Area	800-900 m2 g-1
Mean Pore Diameter	20 nm
Thermal Tolerance	to 500 oC. mp > 1200 oC
Thermal Conductivity	0.01-0.09Wm-1 K-1

Rensil-A (Renewable Silica Aerogel)

Innovated Maerogel through APD

Maerogel Recognition

Patent

IP Australia AU2004287759B2

United States Patent and Trademark Office US78964B2

Japan Patent Office JP2007510613(T)

European Patent Office EP1689676B1

MyIPO MY-130071-A

MyIPO MY-141953-A

Widespread media coverage from across the globe

Featured in World Business: Education for an Emerging Nation 2009

Featured in CNN Spirit of Innovation 2008

In CNN Today 2008 as Miracle Product

Multiple global invention awards

British Invention Show 2007 (Maerogel based products)

• World Invention Award - Glass Oberlisk (Overall)
• International Invention of the Year (Industrial)
- Diamond Award
- Platinum Award
- Gold Medal
• International Award - Iran Diploma
• Natural Earth Award
- Platinum
- Gold

Exhibited at Miraikan National Musuem of Emerging Science and Innovation, Japan at the Science News of Asia: Power of Asia Power of Science 2007 for 3 months

Maerogel Exhibition

NanoTech Malaysia 2009 Conference and Exhibition
Kuala Lumpur Covention Center,
Kuala Lumpur
27-29 October 2009

Science News! from Asia
Power of Asia, Power of Science

National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan)
2-41 Aomi, Koto-ku,
Tokyo 135-0064,
Japan
2 June 2007 - 2 September 2007

Maerogel Exhibited in Miraikan, Japan for 3 months. Miraikan is Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, created by Japan's Science and Technology Agency. It is situated in the Odaiba District of Tokyo.

Nobel Laureate Richard Ernst pays special visit to our Laboratory

23 July 2004

Professor Dr Richard R Ernst, 1991 Nobel Laureate paid a rare and special visit to our Laboratory as part of his travels to Malaysia to celebrate the Nobel Prize Centennial Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2004. Professor Ernst spent an hour to visit and meet researchers from the Zeolite and Nanostructured Materials Group. While at the Laboratory, Professor Ernst was given a tour and briefed by Professor Halimaton on the group's research.

"Professor Ernst was interested in hearing from us about aerogel made from silica extracted from rice husks and scale-up production plans. It was a great honour to have him here and discuss with him about the properties of silica from rice husks and our application of solid-state NMR to solve problems in zeolitic and porous material," said Professor Halimaton.

Ernst holding a jar of Maerogel

Maerogel exhibited at Exposition

IPTA Research Exposition 2003
Putra World Trade Centre,
Kuala Lumpur
8-12 October 2003

Halimaton explaining about products of ZNMG to His Excellency the Minister of Education Tan Sri Dato' Musa bin Mohamad with UTM's Vice Chancellor Datuk Prof. Ir. Dr Mohd Zulkifli bin Tan Sri Mohd Ghazali