气凝胶由于其优越的隔热性能，正在缓慢而稳定地应用于建筑行业。本文首先对气凝胶的合成进行了综述。气凝胶制备涉及昂贵的前体、化学品和超临界干燥的需要，与当前传统的建筑隔热材料相比，气凝胶的生产成本相对更高。还讨论了可能导致气凝胶价格降低的几种方法。接下来，描述了气凝胶热传输背后的理论。气凝胶热导率的降低主要归因于纳米级孔隙的存在和较低的固体体积分数。最后，评估了气凝胶作为内墙改造应用隔热材料的潜在成本效益。 对于从建筑内部石膏板顶部安装具有不同目标R值的气凝胶毯的几种情况，估计了成本。此外，将这些估算值与在墙体内表面应用传统建筑隔热材料以实现类似热性能的改造成本进行比较。对于0.7 m²K/W（R-4·ft2·F/Btu）的目标值，成本分析表明，与传统的内部隔热方法相比，安装气凝胶可显著节省约35%。对于1.41 m²K/W（R-8 h·ft2·°F/Btu）的目标值，气凝胶法与传统隔热方法的当前价格范围相比具有成本效益，但玻璃纤维法除外。此外，目标值为2.11 m²K/W（R- 12 h·ft2·°F/Btu），发现气凝胶法与在墙体外表面应用常规隔热材料的情况相比，成本降低约18%-23%。引文:ASHRAE交易——第120卷，第一部分，纽约州纽约

Aerogels, due to their superior thermal insulating properties, are slowly and steadily finding application in the building industry. In this paper, first a review on the synthesis of aerogels is presented. Aerogel preparation involves expensive precursors, chemicals, and the need for supercritical drying, making the production relatively more expensive compared to the current conventional building insulations. Several approaches that may lead to potential reductions in aerogel prices are also discussed. Next, the theory behind the thermal transport in aerogels is described.The reduction in the thermal conductivity of the aerogel is attributed mainly to the presence of nanoscale pores and the low solid volume fraction. Finally, the potential cost-effectiveness of aerogels as thermal insulation for internal wall retrofit applications is evaluated. Costs for several scenarios are estimated where aerogel blankets with different target R-values were installed from the interior of the building on top of the gypsum board. Further, these estimates are compared with retrofit costs associated with the application of conventional building insulations on the interior surface of the wall to achieve similar thermal performances. For a target value of 0.7 m2K/W (R-4 ·ft2·°F/Btu), the cost analysis shows that significant savings of ~35% can be achieved by installing aerogel compared to interior conventional insulation methods. For a target value of 1.41 m2K/W (R-8 h·ft2·°F/Btu), the aerogel method is determined to be costeffective compared to the current price range of conventional insulation methods, except for the fiberglass method. In addition, for a target value 2.11 m2K/W (R-12 h·ft2·°F/Btu), it is found that the aerogel method is ~18%-23% less expensive compared to the cases where the conventional insulation is applied on the exterior surface of the wall.