Alginate : Nouvelle mousse multifonctionnelle pour l’isolation
Madrid – 29 Février 2024 – Des chercheurs de l’Institut des Sciences des Matériaux de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) ont mis au point une nouvelle mousse durable, combinant alginate et MXène. Cette innovation promet une isolation thermique performante, une détection précoce des incendies et même la production d’énergie. L’isolation thermique est au cœur de cette avancée, ouvrant la voie à des bâtiments plus économes en énergie et plus sûrs. Découvrez comment cette technologie pourrait révolutionner le secteur de la construction.
Translation of the provided text into English:
New Multifunctional Foam for Thermal Insulation and Fire Protection Developed
Researchers at the institute of Materials Science of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) have developed a new, sustainable material with promising applications in construction. This material, a foam, combines the properties of alginate and MXene, offering thermal insulation, fire detection capabilities, and potential energy generation.
“Thermal insulation,” describes Bernd Wicklein, first author of the work and researcher at the ICMM.
This new material has been designed in the form of a foam to take advantage of the physical properties that confer thier pores: “The foams are very light, mechanically very stable and, at the same time, they have qualities of thermal insulation,” explains the researcher, who points out that they have managed to make these foams energy-generating. In addition, when these foams are connected to electrical systems, they can give fire start alert, which makes them a fire protection element.
The foam was created by combining alginate with MXene. (Photo: Ángela R. Bonachera / ICMM / CSIC)
MXenes “are a family of materials with fascinating properties,” describes Wicklein, who indicates that these materials “behave like metals in terms of electrical conductivity, but also disperse in water and have other very captivating catalytic, optical and thermal properties.” Furthermore, it is a material with a two-dimensional structure that occurs in the form of ultra-thin sheets one or two nanometers thick. (A nanometer is the billionth part of a metre). “This gives them great mechanical adaptability,” adds Wicklein.
Foams, for their part, are materials commonly used for thermal insulation as, thanks to their cellular structure, they trap air and reduce thermal conduction. However, the ICMM researcher recalls that, although all thermal insulation materials in construction are foams, “these are very flammable and, to prevent them from being so, very toxic chemical compounds are added.” The new research and development work is an advance in avoiding these compounds when using alginate,which is completely biodegradable.
“We have achieved a building compound that generates electricity, which can be a fire safety element and which is thermally insulating, so this also allows us to save very significant energy,” he summarizes.
Wicklein and his colleagues detail the technical details of the initial version of their material in the academic journal Nanoscale Horizons, under the title “Multifunctional TI3C2T foams.”
