Synthesis and biomedical applications of aerogels: Possibilities and challenges

Chitosan‐based hydrogels: recent design concepts to tailor properties and functions

“…CS‐based aerogels dedicated to biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications have been recently initiated by Quignard et al . and Maleki et al . The processing steps start with the preparation of a hydrogel from an aqueous solution of CS.…”

“…In the following step, the water in the pores of the hydrogel must be replaced with an alcohol (i.e. ethanol) due to the low affinity of water to scCO 2 , to prepare an ‘alcogel’ and to make possible the drying by scCO 2 . For CS hydrogels, a sequential soaking in different gradients of water‐to‐alcohol solvent is required to reduce shrinkage .…”

Gel–Emulsion‐Templated Polymeric Aerogels for Water Treatment by Organic Liquid Removal and Solar Vapor Generation

“…Aerogels are ultralight materials with extremely high porosity (≈90–99 %) . The highly interconnected porous internal structure endows aerogels with unique characteristics such as ultralow thermal conductivity, refractive index, dielectric constant, and sonic velocity, and an ultrawide adjustable density . Aerogels can be prepared through different techniques, and gel–emulsion‐templated synthesis is a green and low‐energy method .…”

“…[25][26][27] The highly interconnected porous internal structure endows aerogels with uniquec haracteristics such as ultralow thermalc onductivity, refractive index,d ielectric constant, and sonic velocity,a nd an ultrawide adjustable density. [28][29][30][31][32][33] Aerogels can be prepared through different techniques, and gel-emulsion-templated synthesis is ag reen and lowenergym ethod. [34] Moreover,t he internal structure of the aerogels can be adjusted easily by varying the compositions of the continuous phase and dispersed phase, [35] and thus, aerogels with different structures and tunablep roperties (e.g.,m echanical properties, wettability,a nd surfacef unctionality) can be obtained.…”

Sensing up to 40 atm Using Pressure‐Sensitive Aero‐GaN

“…There is a rather limited number of materials that can be prepared as aeromaterials, but this number is continuously increasing, especially for carbon‐based nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, aerographite, etc . This tremendous development of aeromaterials is related to an impressive number of applications in energy storage and conversion (e.g., supercapacitors and solar cells), environmental protection (e.g., large absorption of crude oil, sensors), biological applications (e.g., drug delivery, tissue engineering, implantable devices, and biosensing) . An interesting application is electromagnetic shielding where ultra‐lightweight aeromaterials could replace the heavy metals used for this purpose in many industries, such as automotive and aerospace ones .…”