A new approach to low-conductivity, environmentally acceptable thermal insulation. Final report

The object of this work was to develop a low-conductivity, economical, environmentally benign insulation. Specific objectives were to develop the following: (1) a very low conductivity use as ``super insulation`` in refrigerators, and (2) a general-purpose insulation for buildings and other applications. The technical goals of this work were to minimize gas phase, solid phase, and radiative conductivity. The novel approach pursued to achieve low gas phase conductivity was to blow foam with a removable gas or vapor, encapsulate the foam panel in a pouch made with a barrier film, and introduce a very low conductivity gas as the insulating gas phase. For super insulation and general-purpose insulation, the gases of choice were xenon and krypton, respectively. To control cost, the gases were present at low pressure, and the insulating panel was encapsulated with an impermeable polymeric film. Solid-phase conductivity was minimized by using low-density, open-cell, polyurethane foam. For super insulation, radiative heat transfer was impeded by placing aluminized Mylar films between relatively transparent 70-mil foam slabs. For general-purpose insulation, it was projected to impede radiative heat transfer by achieving the same very small cell size with open-cell CO{sub 2}-blown foam as is now achieved with closed-cell CO{sub 2}-blown foam