Chemically converted graphene aerogels with ultralight density and high compressibility are prepared by diamine-mediated functionalization and assembly, followed by microwave irradiation. The resulting graphene aerogels with density as low as 3 mg cm(-3) show excellent resilience and can completely recover after more than 90% compression. The ultralight graphene aerogels possessing high elastic...

Aerogels of layered double hydroxides were prepared by a simple and eco-friendly method involving a quick coprecipitation followed by supercritical CO(2) drying. Such aerogels display high surface areas and enhanced adsorption behavior.

Nano-porous silica aerogels are unique materials often having a high specific surface area, a high porosity (75-99%), a low thermal conductivity (0.01-0.03W/mK), and a low index of refraction. Because of their unique properties, aerogels have been extensively studied, not only for use as transparent thermal insulators but also as inter-metal dielectric materials, optical and acoustic applicatio...

Resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogels and carbon aerogels of different mesoporosities have been used as templates for preparing bimodal zeolites of mesopores. Samples were thoroughly characterized with X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N(2) adsorption at 77 K, as well as FT-IR spectroscopy and (29)Si nuclear ...

Developing a novel and facile way to synthesize composite aerogels plays an important role in the applications of aerogels. UV-resistant hydrophobic titania-containing silica aerogels are prepared for the first time using potassium titanate as precursor by a modified ambient pressure drying method. The well established silica-titania networks, which can be tuned from 10 to 30 nm by adjusting th...

Hybrid organic aerogels consisting of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), and graphene oxide nanosheets (GONSs) were prepared using an environmentally friendly freeze-drying process. The material properties of these fabricated aerogels were measured and analyzed using various characterization techniques including compression testing, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravim...

Lignin can be used as a cheap natural raw material to prepare organic aerogels based upon gelation and supercritical drying in ethanol. The aerogels were prepared from a mixture of the raw materials with lignin (L), resorcinol (R), and formaldehyde (F), followed by a reaction catalyzed by NaOH(C). The effect of the preparation conditions, such as the LRF concentration, the mass ratio of LR to N...

We report on a novel slow dynamics of polymer xerogels, aerogels, and nanocomposite aerogels with iron oxide nanoparticles, as revealed by X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. The polymer aerogel and its nanocomposite aerogels, which are porous in nature, exhibit hyper-diffusive dynamics at room temperature. In contrast, non-porous polymer xerogels exhibit an absence of this peculiar dynamics...

Silica aerogels were prepared via the sol–gel process using tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) as the precursor and polyethylene oxide (PEO) of molecular weights 10,000 and 100,000 to provide a polymeric template for gelation. The experiments included eleven different formulations ranging from 100% 10,000MW PEO to 100% 100,000MW PEO in 10% increments. The total concentration of PEO was kept constant thr...

One plausible approach to endow aerogels with specific properties while preserving their other attributes is to fine-tune the building blocks. However, the preparation of metallic aerogels with designated properties, for example catalytically beneficial morphologies and transition-metal doping, still remains a challenge. Here, we report on the first aerogel electrocatalyst composed entirely of ...