Aerogels—Airy Materials: Chemistry, Structure, and Properties

Air, air, air…︁ and some solid skeleton; this is the basis for an interesting class of materials-the aerogels (shown schematically on the right). Can one therefore speak of "simple" chemistry? The design of such a filigrane network requires the very careful control of chemical parameters. The reward is an assortment of different property profiles owing to the richness of possible variations.