Cardinal Cg Company

Reaz Ahmed Chowdhury

Kari B Myli

Keith James Burrows

Luis Octavio Arellano

Mohammad Arifuzzaman

The invention provides silica wet gel, silica aerogel, and methods that can be used to form an enhanced silica aerogel sheet having fewer optical defects along with other desirable properties.

Silica wet gel and aerogel

The invention provides an elastomeric optical device having a first optical state and a second optical state. The device is transparent when in the first optical state and translucent or opaque when in the second optical state. The device comprises, in sequence, a first transparent electrode, a dielectric layer, an elastomer layer, and a second transparent electrode. The elastomer layer preferably has certain mechanical properties, such as a Shore OOO hardness of less than 15, and/or certain chemical properties, such as being substantially devoid of unreacted sites. The second transparent electrode is configured to compress the elastomer layer in response to an electric field between the first and second transparent electrodes, such that when the elastomeric optical device is in the second optical state, the elastomer layer is compressed between the first and second transparent electrodes. Methods of operating an elastomeric optical device are also provided.

Growing community of inventors

Cross Plains, WI, United States of America

Reaz Ahmed Chowdhury