20 / 56
Referring to Oros’ SolarCore as
“out of this world” is fairly apropos.
That’s because SolarCore proprietary
insulation for apparel utilizes aerogel,
and NASA uses aerogel regularly in
space: from insulation on the Mars
Pathfinder Rover vehicles and space
suits to the capturing of Comet Wild
2’s dust by the Stardust space probe.
The outdoor industry has been
using aerogel for some time too. The
Vasque Radiator double boot, Pacific
Outdoor Equipment’s Hyper Elite
camping pad and Camelbak’s Podium
Ice bike bottle all use aerogel insula-
tion. Yet aerogel’s use in apparel up
to now has been minimal. There are
several reasons why, one of which has
to do with the nature of this highly
intriguing material.
Aerogel, in a typical iteration, is a
very inflexible solid. It starts as a gel,
hence the name, but through special
processing, the liquid is dried out of-
ten using supercritical CO2 drying (see
“Dyeing to Be Clean,” Inside Outdoor
Summer 2014 on supercritical CO2).
This leaves behind a solid that is ex-
tremely rigid with a lightweight nano-
sized pore structure. Even though its
density is that of air, it is still extreme-
ly strong. However, when stressed to
a breaking point, it shatters like glass.
For apparel, the trick is to get this un-
cooperatively stiff material to conform
to the compound curves of a human
body without leaving shards.
Despite that giant hurdle, the
Oros crew was determined to harness
aerogel’s formidable insulating prow-
ess that knows no insulator remotely
as effective. The key to its amazing
insulating properties lies in its nano-
porous structure. With pore sizes that
small, gases cannot easily move from
pore to pore, a major cause of heat
loss through convection. Again, due
to the minuscule size of the pores,
aerogel is virtually all gas and, as
nature would have it, gases do not
conduct heat well. That characteristic
magnifies its ability to insulate tre-
mendously. Additionally, most aerogel
is made with silica (silicon dioxide),
the main component of beach sand,
which is also a poor heat conductor
(as an added bonus, silica, one of the
most abundant compounds on earth,
is also eco-friendly).
A Quantum
Leap in
Insulation
Oros tames aerogel for use in apparel
By
Ernest
Shiwanov
Women’s Oros Orion Jacket (MSRP $400) with hood, removable powder
skirt and pit zips
Inside
Outdoor
|
Spring
2016
20