Massachusetts Institute of Technology

James Loomis

Gang Paul Chen

Xiaopeng Huang

Svetlana Boriskina

Lee A Weinstein

Evelyn N Wang

Sungwoo Yang

Bikramjit S Bhatia

Lin Zhao

Thomas Alan Cooper

Elise M Strobach

David M Bierman

Yanfei Xu

Hadi Ghasemi

Jonathan K Tong

Jonathan Kien-Kwok Tong

Jianjian Wang

A silica aerogel having a mean pore size less than 5 nm with a standard deviation of 3 nm. The silica aerogel may have greater than 95% solar-weighted transmittance at a thickness of 8 mm for wavelengths in the range of 250 nm to 2500 nm, and a 400° C. black-body weighted specific extinction coefficient of greater than 8 m/kg for wavelengths of 1.5 μm to 15 μm. Silica aerogel synthesis methods are described. A solar thermal aerogel receiver (STAR) may include an opaque frame defining an opening, an aerogel layer disposed in the opaque frame, with at least a portion of the aerogel layer being proximate the opening, and a heat transfer fluid pipe in thermal contact with and proximate the aerogel layer. A concentrating solar energy system may include a STAR and at least one reflector to direct sunlight to an opening in the STAR.

Solar thermal aerogel receiver and materials therefor

A silica aerogel having a mean pore size less than 5 nm with a standard deviation of 3 nm. The silica aerogel may have greater than 95% solar-weighted transmittance at a thickness of 8 mm for wavelengths in the range of 250 nm to 2500 nm, and a 400&#xb0; C. black-body weighted specific extinction coefficient of greater than 8 m/kg for wavelengths of 1.5 &#x3bc;m to 15 &#x3bc;m. Silica aerogel synthesis methods are described. A solar thermal aerogel receiver (STAR) may include an opaque frame defining an opening, an aerogel layer disposed in the opaque frame, with at least a portion of the aerogel layer being proximate the opening, and a heat transfer fluid pipe in thermal contact with and proximate the aerogel layer. A concentrating solar energy system may include a STAR and at least one reflector to direct sunlight to an opening in the STAR.

Process for continuous fabrication of highly aligned polymer films. A polymer-solvent solution is subjected to a high shear, high temperature, Couette flow to extrude a thin film having polymer chain disentanglement. The extruded thin film is frozen and the solvent is allowed to evaporate to form a dried film. The dried film is mechanically drawn using a constant force, adaptive-thickness drawing system to align polymer molecular chains through plastic deformation. A suitable polymer is ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.

Continuous fabrication system and method for highly aligned polymer films

Infrared-transparent visible-opaque fabrics for wearable personal thermal management.

Infrared transparent visible opaque fabrics

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Boston, MA, United States of America

James Loomis