Characterization of aerogel properties

The appeal of aerogels' distinctive texture has prompted the scientific community to develop a wide variety of compositions for applications in fields as diverse as thermal insulation, electrochemistry, catalysis, particle detection and acoustics.

Table 1 provides a non-exhaustive list of aerogels developed to date, together with their applications and bibliographical references. These are classified into five categories:

• simple oxide aerogels are the most common;

• mixed oxide or higher-order aerogels ;

• organic aerogels ;

• hybrid organic/mineral or metalloid-based aerogels ;

• aerogels doped mainly with metal atoms.