Sculpture and science collide in lab

Michael Todd
Assistant Spectrum Editor

As the teacher’s assistant for the foundry course offered by the sculpture and extended media department, Ginger Kitchen is experienced with working with casting and molds. However, Kitchen never expected that her artistic practice would include the beakers, lab coats and chemicals she is currently using in her collaboration with physics professor Massimo Bertino, Ph.D.

Kitchen and Bertino are working together to explore the properties of a material called aerogel, a low-density material that is able to withstand extreme heat. It is most commonly used as thermal insulation.

While Dr. Bertino is looking to perfect the material for practical purposes, Kitchen is interested in the potential as a medium for her sculpture practice.

“Right now, I’m trying to start simple. Everything that I want to do sculpturally (is) not simple,” she said. “I’ll probably just make the panes and things that I can manipulate (in my studio).”

Because of the material’s heat resistant qualities, one of Kitchen’s potential project concepts involves using the aerogel to create a temperature controlled dome that could either capture or reflect heat. Kitchen refers to this hypothetical dome as a type of “reliquary” that could house and protect heat sensitive materials, like a scoop of ice cream, from extreme temperatures.

Kitchen also experiments with adding additional materials to the formula, like dyes, to test the limits of the material. Using the dyes, Kitchen said, proved surprisingly helpful. It gives a visual to the aerogel’s set time, with the liquid solidifying approximately three to five seconds after turning a pink color.

“Basically, I’m learning this visually, just like with anything else,” she said.

Because the pair is still in the beginning stages of working with the formula, Kitchen does not know if her goals for the material’s application are possible.

Jesse Burrows, the sculpture department’s foundry technician, first recommended Kitchen to Bertino as a potential intern near the beginning of last semester because of her foundry and mold-making background.

With her physical, hands-on background in sculpture, Kitchen works in the lab as Bertino’s assistant, applying his formulas in a trial-and-error manner. While Bertino often supervises the trials, the process still involves a lot of guesswork on Kitchen’s part.

Bertino first began working with aerogel while teaching at the University of Missouri, where he attempted to reinforce the fragile material with polymers to make it easier to handle.

Little by little, Bertino has been tweaking the formula, experimenting with the ingredients to produce a more financially practical and accessible formula. The mixing process is extremely specific, requiring precise measurements and the addition of certain materials in an exact order at exact times.

Aerogel begins as a specific combination of materials, including carbon and silica, which sets into a gel when mixed. Because of the material’s fragility, aerogel is normally produced in easy to handle flat sheets. Kitchen, however, is currently experimenting with casting aerogel in simple, yet solid and physical, shapes.

Once the aerogel sets in its mold, the form has to be removed carefully because of its fragile nature. This removal process, according to Kitchen, can take upwards of 40 minutes. The shape is then fired at extreme temperatures in an autoclave, which is basically a special type of oven. Autoclaves come in different sizes, but the one in Bertino’s lab is approximately the size of a paper towel roll, limiting the scale Kitchen and Bertino can work in.

When fired, the aerogel becomes a solid that must be cleaned with special chemicals, refrigerated and kept moist, all before Kitchen can handle the aerogel as a potential material. Even after firing, aerogel remains brittle and can crack or flake at the slightest touch. Bertino is currently developing a method of light exposure called photopolymerization, that would cover the material in a solid barrier, strengthening it.

Recently, Kitchen and physics student Robert Williams received an Undergraduate Research Grant to further research aerogel under Bertino’s guidance.

One of the major roadblocks in the pair’s research includes the high cost of the heat-resistant rubber. It costs about $800 and is needed to create the flexible molds used to cast the material. Part of the research grant funds will let Kitchen experiment with more heat-resistant rubbers.

“I’m kind of going backwards. I’m starting with things that are way more advanced (than I know),” Kitchen said. “It’s not about the math anymore. I’m not solving mindless formulas. Now, I’m actually making things. The end product just happens to be a material. It’s not like I view my practice differently. I feel like beforehand I was just investigating other materials.”