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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2021

Lorenz Ratke
Affiliation:
German Aerospace Center
Pavel Gurikov
Affiliation:
Hamburg University of Technology
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Summary

Aerogels are fascinating materials. Give a piece a silica aerogel into someone's hands, and that person is immediately fascinated and curious about how such a solid, stiff material can be that light and transparent able to withstand a burning flame of a welding torch, and that they can still hold it in their hands without any feeling of it becoming hot. They feel the same experience if they hold, for instance, a cellulose aerogel in their hands: it is equally stiff, light, white and feels like a marshmallow without having a glueing touch to the fingers. The introduction discusses the understanding and various definitions of aerogels and classifies the types of aerogels developed so far. Finally, the chapter gives a brief overview of the history of aerogels.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Chemistry and Physics of Aerogels
Synthesis, Processing, and Properties
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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