Hydroceramics

Whew, it’s a pretty hot Wisdom Wednesday!

Ever wonder when we’ll be able to invent a material that can lower temperature inside our homes without thinking much about the electricity consumption? Especially since we are in the tropics, summer has become one of the most anticipated seasons—well, as if there’s much of a choice—for people who enjoy beaches and going with all those Beat the Heat summer activities. But it is also a pain in one’s household pockets since we end up paying for higher electricity bills due to our more frequent use of cooling appliances to continue with our daily routines without getting all sweaty and irritated due to extreme heat.

This is where Hydroceramic comes into the picture, a glimpse to a possible material that could pave the way to a cooler future, in all aspects. Yes, they heard you! That’s why in 2013, a group of students from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) came up with a project that covers the future of intelligent constructions as they proposed a brick prototype that has thermal conditioning features. Exploring a smart material that is hydrogel, they made use of its properties as a polymer and infused it to one important part of a building or a house: its walls.

The composite material is composed of several layers, assembled like a brick or tile, namely: the ceramic layer, the absorbent fabric and the hydrogel. The ceramic layer is made up of clay which supports the whole material and holds the hydrogel within each pocket-like structure, then layered by the absorbent fabric that serves as another medium for the water and allows the expansion of the hydrogel. Lastly, a thinner ceramic layer with holes that gives way to an increased cooling surface area. And there you go, a sandwich-like material that passively responds to its environment.

Let’s have a closer look at our smart component, the hydrogel. They can be compared to a Jell-O with how they undergo phase transition when exposed to a change in temperature, but hydrogels are more specifically defined as hydrophilic crosslinked polymeric chains joined together by strong covalent bonds which promotes its thermosetting properties. The cross links prevent the polymeric chains from dissolving in water, therefore making hydrogels water insoluble. They are composed of up to 98% water, and can absorb water 500 times their weight. These properties of hydrogel made Hydroceramic’s mechanism function.

Here’s how it works: the hydrogel accumulates water and therefore expands turning it to its liquid state. When exposed to a higher temperature, it’ll undergo slow evaporation, losing water and going back to its original solid state. During the evaporation process, the ceramic layer absorbs the water from the hydrogel. They made use of the small porous properties of clay that help in the slow absorption of water, acting like how a sponge absorbs and maintains water, then its evaporation which causes a cooling of the surrounding.

The final prototype they have made could lower indoor surroundings by 5 to 6 °C. As it works passively, the hydrogel can hold water until there is a change in temperature that can trigger the material’s mechanism. Introducing Hydroceramics in a system as panels, the air conditioning’s temperature can be set higher than usual, such as setting it up 4°C higher, contributing to reducing the air conditioning’s overall electricity consumption by 28%. (This calculation was based on data conducted in Barcelona, Spain)

Also, it gives a promising future in terms of manufacturing since they explored the use of 3D printing in making some of the layers like the fabric channel. It can also be seen that this building alternative is cost-efficient as they have used materials that are inexpensive and common in the industry.

Looks like aside from a cool Wisdom Wednesday, we’ll have to watch out for very cool other days as well!

References:

[1] Hydroceramic. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2020, from http://materiability.com/portfolio/hydroceramic/

[2] Hydroceramic. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://iaac.net/project/hydroceramic/

[3] Mora, V. (n.d.). Hydroceramic: intelligent walls. IAAC Research about thermosensitivity and autonomous thermal conditioning of surfaces. Retrieved from http://www.morethangreen.es/en/hydroceramic-intelligent-walls-iaac-research-about-thermosensitivity-and-autonomous-thermal-conditioning-of-surfaces/

[4] Rathi, A. (n.d.). Hydroceramic. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/akanksharathi/docs/final_booklet

[5] Paleos, G. A. (n.d.). What are Hydrogels? Pittsburgh Plastics Manufacturing Inc. Retrieved from http://www.pittsburghplastics.com/assets/files/What Are Hydrogels.pdf

[6] Lapidot, S. A., & Kost, J. (2001). In Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology (2nd ed., pp. 3878–3882). Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B0-08-043152-6/00688-4

Content by: Liane Navea 
Design by: Mike Aquino

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