Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Dec 14;7(4):264.
doi: 10.3390/gels7040264.

Aerogels for Biomedical, Energy and Sensing Applications

Muhammad Tayyab Noman  1 , Nesrine Amor  1 , Azam Ali  2 , Stanislav Petrik  3 , Radek Coufal  4 , Kinga Adach  3 , Mateusz Fijalkowski  3
Affiliations
Review

Aerogels for Biomedical, Energy and Sensing Applications

Muhammad Tayyab Noman et al. Gels. .

Abstract

The term aerogel is used for unique solid-state structures composed of three-dimensional (3D) interconnected networks filled with a huge amount of air. These air-filled pores enhance the physicochemical properties and the structural characteristics in macroscale as well as integrate typical characteristics of aerogels, e.g., low density, high porosity and some specific properties of their constituents. These characteristics equip aerogels for highly sensitive and highly selective sensing and energy materials, e.g., biosensors, gas sensors, pressure and strain sensors, supercapacitors, catalysts and ion batteries, etc. In recent years, considerable research efforts are devoted towards the applications of aerogels and promising results have been achieved and reported. In this thematic issue, ground-breaking and recent advances in the field of biomedical, energy and sensing are presented and discussed in detail. In addition, some other perspectives and recent challenges for the synthesis of high performance and low-cost aerogels and their applications are also summarized.

Keywords: aerogels; catalysts; porous materials; sensors; silica aerogels.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A schematic illustration of the conventional synthesis method of aerogels. Reprinted with permission from [24].
Figure 2
Figure 2
SEM micrographs of pectin cryogels, aerogels and xerogels. Reprinted with permission from [68].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Practical samples of a pectin hydrogel, cryogel, aerogel and xerogel. Reprinted with permission from [68].
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) A schematic illustration of 3D freeze-printing process. (b) Different geometries of 3D cellulose aerogels. (c) Cellulose aerogel with honeycomb shape standing on a dandelion. (d) SEM micrograph displaying the top surface of 3D freeze-printed aerogel. (e) SEM micrograph displaying the cross-sectional surface of 3D freeze-printed aerogel. Reprinted with permission from [72].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Traditional evacuated receiver and evacuated receiver modified by aerogels. Reprinted with permission from [77].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Application of silica aerogels in sea water, (a) structural evolution of silica aerogels, (b) the influence of silica content, (c) seawater pressure on silica aerogels and poly butylene terephthalate composites. Reprinted with permission from [91].
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Illustration of reduced graphene oxide-based aerogel-sensing platform, (b) Vocal-cord vibration recognition, (c) facial expression and body movement monitoring, and (d) aerogel-based artificial skin. Reprinted with permission from [106].
Figure 8
Figure 8
(a) Illustration of Arduino microcontroller connected to a circuit for finger movement detection, sending messages to a cellphone through Bluetooth connection. Photographs of the wooden hand model (b) in the initial state, (c) bending index finger, (d) bending middle finger, (e) bending ring finger and the corresponding photographs of the cellphone displaying messages from Arduino microcontroller and LED bulbs emitting red, white and blue lights, respectively. Reprinted with permission from [108].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kurundawade S.R., Malladi R.S., Kulkarni R.M., Khan A.A.P. Advances in Aerogel Composites for Environmental Remediation. Elsevier; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2021. Natural aerogels for pollutant removal; pp. 19–32.
    1. Liu H., Du H., Zheng T., Xu T., Liu K., Ji X., Zhang X., Si C. Recent progress in cellulose based composite foams and aerogels for advanced energy storage devices. Chem. Eng. J. 2021;426:130817. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.130817. - DOI
    1. Amor N., Noman M.T., Petru M. Classification of Textile Polymer Composites: Recent Trends and Challenges. Polymers. 2021;13:2592. doi: 10.3390/polym13162592. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ashraf M.A., Wiener J., Farooq A., Saskova J., Noman M.T. Development of maghemite glass fibre nanocomposite for adsorptive removal of methylene blue. Fibers Polym. 2018;19:1735–1746. doi: 10.1007/s12221-018-8264-2. - DOI
    1. Yang M., Choy K.-l. A nature-derived, flexible and three dimensional (3D) nano-composite for chronic wounds pH monitoring. Mater. Lett. 2021;288:129335. doi: 10.1016/j.matlet.2021.129335. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources