00:00This piece, right in my hand, is the lightest and lowest density solid in the world.
00:05Even with a small pressure applied by my finger, the aerogel shatters into thousands of pieces and turns to dust.
00:12But what's surprising is that if I take those aerogel dusts and apply it to any surface, like my body,
00:17it becomes 100% hydrophobic. It makes me completely waterproof.
00:21On top of that, this dust also forms new, non-brittle, foam-like aerogel composites,
00:26which can be utilized in extreme applications requiring protection.
00:30Aerogels can be in different shapes. Given that they are 99% air, can you guess the kind of sound would an aerogel make?
00:41It's like an empty can dropping onto a steel surface.
00:46Very metallic.
00:49So aerogel is this really amazing material.
00:52It's the lowest thermal conductive solid in existence.
00:56or the best insulation in the universe.
01:00This is the same stuff NASA uses to insulate spacecraft, like the Mars rovers.
01:06What is it made of?
01:07It's just 99% air.
01:10In this case, that other 1% or so is amorphous silica.
01:14Pores are only a couple nanometers in thickness.
01:17Just to put that into perspective, the average pore size is around one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair.
01:26Oh yeah.
01:27Aerogel's insulation capabilities are not its only remarkable property.
01:30It also exhibits both hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics.
01:35How is it possible?
01:36Now we're going to sprinkle some aerogel powder on the water.
01:39Notice how the aerogel doesn't sink.
01:41It's literally floating on the surface, creating a barrier.
01:45I'll put it in the water.
01:48It's in the water now.
01:50Thanks to the aerogel's super hydrophobic properties, the match is still dry and lit.
01:54Wow, that's amazing.
01:59The spawn is completely submerged, but it's completely dry.
02:05I'm going to put some particles on.
02:09I wonder what would happen if I apply it to my whole body.
02:12Would I be waterproof?
02:16Wow.
02:17That's pretty cool.
02:20That's awesome.
02:21These ball-shaped droplets are not actually touching my hand.
02:24There is a layer of aerogel powder between my skin and the water.
02:28Go with my entire hand.
02:30Wow.
02:32It feels like magic.
02:33Yeah, it really is.
02:35But what we will see when I cover my whole body with these particles will blow our minds.
02:39You see the intense hit here?
02:41Let's start.
02:44Oh my god, this one is half burned already.
02:47As you see, this setup was much more effective in terms of protecting this hamburger.
02:53And this one is on smoke.
02:56You see the difference?
02:57If this insulation is really that good, if you're using it to insulate spacecraft,
03:02why isn't it used to insulate everything here on Earth, right?
03:06From buildings to apparel.
03:08Turns out it has one major problem.
03:10I love that.
03:12That's beautiful.
03:13The challenge with aerogel since the beginning of time has been that this stuff is super brittle.
03:20And that's what we do at Oros Labs or SolarCore.
03:23How do you make it not brittle so that you can use it in whatever application?
03:27So this is the solution you came up with?
03:29That's correct.
03:30So this is a closed cell foam combined with aerogel.
03:33Closed cell foams are made from silica substance with a structure consisting of tiny sealed air pockets.
03:39Before moving to the flamethrower test and test it on my entire body,
03:42we'll make one small trial with this foam.
03:45If that falls, I have to take my hand immediately.
03:49Yeah, I'm quick.
03:52You ready?
03:53You can crank it up as much as you want.
03:55So you're seeing the impact on it.
04:13So it's very cold here.
04:15I can touch it as much as I want.
04:17But here it's also cold.
04:20It doesn't keep heat.
04:21But this one is hot.
04:23It melted, look.
04:25Look at the shape of it.
04:27We will test the aerogel shield by heating it to the maximum temperature that propane gas can reach.
04:32You ready?
04:33I'm ready.
04:35Whoa, whoa.
04:38I can feel some heat from the side.
04:43But nothing from the center.
04:46Can you get closer to me?
04:50That's as close as I want to get.
04:53I can still touch it.
04:54The average temperature of the flames was around 1200 degrees Celsius.
04:59For those unfamiliar, liquid nitrogen is extremely cold at a temperature of about negative 196 degrees Celsius.
05:06It wouldn't be great if it came in contact with your skin.
05:08It would freeze your skin.
05:10Then my hand will be shattered.
05:13That's exactly right.
05:14That's right.
05:15Before using liquid nitrogen on myself with my aerogel insulated jacket, let's see what this liquid nitrogen can do to something that's not protected by aerogel for comparison.
05:27This is the Leidenfrost effect.
05:28There's such a great temperature difference between liquid nitrogen and the floor that it literally can't get absorbed.
05:34Our next item on the list, a bunch of parsley.
05:42But this time, instead of submerging it, we'll directly spray liquid nitrogen on it.
05:46And we're going to see what happens to this chicken.
06:04The floor shatters.
06:05This could be so dangerous then.
06:08That's pretty dangerous.
06:09Behind me, Mike is ready to spray the liquid nitrogen directly at me.
06:13Okay.
06:14You guys ready?
06:14Okay.
06:15Five, four, three, two, one.
06:35This is amazing.
06:36I don't feel it.
06:38Just on my pants because some droplets came to my pants, but that's all right.
06:42For my upper body, I don't feel anything.
06:45As you see, this ice is covering the entire lake.
06:48I'm going to apply particles of aerogel on my body, get in the water and stay dry.
06:53So no health problems, right?
06:55No.
06:55Okay.
06:56Feeling okay today?
06:57Yeah.
06:57You've obviously been in the water before cold water.
07:00Yeah.
07:00Okay, perfect.
07:01We have everything else set up just in case.
07:08I have a bucket of powdered silica aerogel and I'm evenly covering my whole body with that.
07:12Let's see if it can keep me dry even underwater.
07:23I'm completely submerging my body now.
07:26I am dry.
07:37This is a miracle, guys.
07:39Particles are blocking the water coming onto my skin.
07:43Still nothing.
07:44Nothing.
07:45Look at my lake.
07:46It's in the water for quite some time.
07:49And it's dry.
07:51There are droplets on my lake.
07:53Let's get this out of my lake.
07:57I feel...
07:58I don't even feel cold.
07:59I don't even need that.
08:01The water was kind of dark and muddy.
08:03That's why we couldn't see how my body looked underwater.
08:06I will get inside a pool now and you'll see how it actually looks underwater.
08:11Aerogel particles cause a thin gray layer because they trapped tiny air bubbles on my body.
08:16These air bubbles reflect skylight, giving my skin a shiny silvery appearance.
08:20You can notice some of these air bubbles coming off my legs and rise to the water surface.
08:33Air on my skin makes me feel lighter in the water.
08:35You're completely dry.
08:37How is that possible?
08:47It's raining heavily now, but I don't get wet.
08:59I might be the only person caught in the rain completely covered in hydrophobic aerogel particles.
09:05If you look at it carefully, there are rain droplets on the surface of the pool water.
09:09That means rain water and the pool water never meet.
09:12There is a layer of aerogel between the pool and the rain water.
09:17The aerogel powder that I applied onto my body was hydrophobic, but this one is hydrophilic.
09:22Watch what happens when I drop water on this aerogel.
09:29Think of this like a small sponge.
09:32It can absorb 25 times of its weight.
09:35As this type of aerogel can absorb moisture from the air,
09:38they are used in museums to protect artifacts or to safely store medicines without exposing them to humidity.
09:44And last but not least, aerogel's nanopores are even way smaller than the visible light.
09:50The visible light ranges from 380 nanometers to 750 nanometers,
09:55while the aerogel's pores are only between 20 to 40 nanometers wide.
09:59Shorter wavelength particles, blues, purples, UV light, get scattered when they hit aerogel.
10:06And that's what causes aerogel to look blue.
10:10Same reason the sky looks blue. It's called Rayleigh scattering.
10:13When we expose an aerogel to ultraviolet light, which has the shortest wavelengths,
10:17it scatters the light better, making the aerogel appear opaque.
10:20Now when we switch to infrared light, which has the longest wavelengths of all,
10:24it passes right through the aerogel, making it appear completely transparent.
10:28When I hold it up to the sky, it looks yellow because it allows longer wavelengths of sunlight,
10:33such as yellow and red, to pass through more easily, especially in bright sunlight.
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