The ultrahighly nanoporous aerogel is recognized as a state of matter rather than as a functional material, because of its qualitative differences in bulk properties, transitional density and enthalpy between liquid and gas, and diverse chemical compositions. In this review, the characteristics, classification, history and preparation of the aerogel were introduced. More attention was paid to t...

Silica aerogel microspheres based on alkali silica sol were synthesized using the emulsion method. The experimental results revealed that the silica aerogel microspheres (4-20 µm in diameter) were mesoporous solids with an average pore diameter ranging from 6 to 35 nm. The tapping densities and specific surface areas of the aerogel microspheres are in the range of 0.112-0.287 g/cm³ and 207.5-66...

The viscoelasticity of boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS) aerogel has been observed and investigated. It is found that the BNNS aerogel has a high damping ratio (0.2), while it exhibits lightweight and negligible temperature dependence below 180 °C. The creep behavior of the BNNS aerogel markedly demonstrates its strain dependence on stress magnitude and temperature, and can be well simulated by th...

Introduction: Great care and a large effort was made to minimize the amount of organic matter contained within the flight aerogel used to collect Comet 81P/Wild 2 samples [1]. Even so, by the very nature of the production process and silica aerogel’s affinity for volatile organics keeping silica aerogel free from organics is a monumental task. Silica aerogel from three production batches was fl...

Marine pollution caused by frequent oil spill accidents has brought about tremendous damages to marine ecological environment. Therefore, the facile large-scale preparation of three-dimensional (3D) porous functional materials with special wettability is in urgent demand. In this study, we report a low-cost and salt-tolerant superoleophobic aerogel for efficient oil/seawater separation. The aer...

The heat capacity of pure 3He in low density aerogel is measured at 22.5 bars. The superfluid response is simultaneously monitored with a torsional oscillator. A slightly rounded heat capacity peak, 65 microK in width, is observed at the 3He-aerogel superfluid transition, T(ca). Subtracting the bulk 3He contribution, the heat capacity shows a Fermi-liquid form above T(ca). We can fit the heat c...

Superfluid 3He confined in aerogel offers a unique chance to study the effects of a short mean free path on the properties of a well defined superfluid Fermi liquid with anisotropic pairing. Transport coefficients and collective excitations, e.g. longitudinal sound, are expected to react sensitively to a short mean free path and to offer the possibility for testing recently developed models for...

The efficiency of Co(II)-, Mn(II)-, and Ti(IV)-doped carbon aerogels for the transformation of ozone into (*)OH radicals was investigated. The carbon aerogels had a markedly acid surface character (pH(PZC approximately equal) congruent with 3-4) with very high surface oxygen concentrations (O approximately equal with 20%). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses of the samples showed th...

BACKGROUND Polyurea crosslinked silica aerogels are highly porous, lightweight, and mechanically strong materials with great potential for in vivo applications. Recent in vivo and in vitro studies have demonstrated the biocompatibility of this type of aerogel. The highly porous nature of aerogels allows for exceptional thermal, electric, and acoustic insulating capabilities that can be taken ad...

Measurements of superfluid He in 98% aerogel demonstrate the existence of a metastable A-like phase and a stable B-like phase. It has been suggested that the relative stability of these two phases is controlled by anisotropic quasiparticle scattering in the aerogel. Anisotropic scattering produced by axial compression of the aerogel has been predicted to stabilize the axial state of superfluid ...