History

Although aerogels were first isolated in the early 1930’s, their broad commercial availability is a very recent phenomenon.

First Commercial Scale Aerogel Plant, Monsanto Boston, Massachusetts 1943

(Photo From Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory)

Aspen Aerogels was founded in 2001 to commercialize aerogels based on its advances in aerogel technology.

Since aerogels were discovered, many have tried unsuccessfully to master the intricacies of producing these fascinating materials. Based on the original synthesis approaches, the preparation of aerogels was difficult and time consuming; it took several weeks just to successfully isolate lab scale quantities. Aspen Aerogels has solved many of these problems and manufactures aerogels by a proprietary, cost-effective, surpercritical process; producing aerogels in a thin, flexible, easy to use blanket form.

One can think of aerogels as very fine, lightweight, nanoporous solids that are essentially “Solid Air.” They may in fact contain as little as 5% solids, and as such are usually rather fragile materials. How do you prepare such a material? How can you isolate something so fragile in such a way that it can be produced and distributed for broad commercial use in a cost effective way? More details are provided on our Technology pages.

Though long sought after, their fragility, difficult preparation procedures, and many other challenges limited aerogels to the realms of intellectual curiosity and research. Some of the important milestones in the history of aerogels and the advancement of Aspen Aerogels, Inc. are listed below.

1931	Steven Kistler prepares first aerogels at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, CA
1950 - 1970	Shortly after his work at the College of the Pacific, Kistler accepts a position with Mosanto. Presumably Monsanto adopts Kistler’s technology, as they commercialized Aerogel products under the name Santocel. These aerogels were used primarily as additives in cosmetics and toothpastes. Mosanto exits the Aerogel business in 1960’s due to ongoing technical difficulties and prohibitive costs.
1970’s	Teichner’s group at Universite Claud Bernard in Lyon, France, and other groups, dramatically streamline the process for making aerogels.
1983	BASF starts production of aerogel beads, but stops in 1996.
1984	Aspen Systems Founded
1986	Tewari and Hunt patent a process to dry aerogels with supercritical carbon dioxide at relatively low temperatures and pressures.
1989	Thermalux LP founded but ceases operations in 1992. JPL prepares aerogels for the Shuttle Program.
1992	Hoechst begins granular aerogel program, but sells it in 1998.
1993	Aspen Systems begins Aerogel development under a NASA contract.
1995	Aspen Systems develops flexible aerogel blanket insulation for Space Suits.
1999	Aspen Systems’ aerogels receive SBIR award for Technology of the Year.
2001	Aspen Aerogels, Inc. launched.
2003	Aspen Aerogels opens new plant and undergoes major expansion. Enters into long term supply agreement with Technip-Coflexip.
2004	Aspen Aerogels materials are used in products selected for use by the Elite Special Forces of the US Military, and the Canadian Ski Team.