Noman Muhammad Tayyab, Amor Nesrine, Ali Azam, Petrik Stanislav, Coufal Radek, Adach Kinga, Fijalkowski Mateusz
Department of Machinery Construction, Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation (CXI), Technical University of Liberec, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic.
Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Textile Engineering, Technical University of Liberec, 461 17 Liberec, Czech Republic.
Gels. 2021 Dec 14;7(4):264. doi: 10.3390/gels7040264.
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.
气凝胶一词用于指由充满大量空气的三维（3D）互连网络组成的独特固态结构。这些充满空气的孔隙增强了宏观尺度上的物理化学性质和结构特征，并整合了气凝胶的典型特征，例如低密度、高孔隙率及其成分的一些特定性质。这些特性使气凝胶适用于高灵敏度和高选择性传感及能量材料，例如生物传感器、气体传感器、压力和应变传感器、超级电容器、催化剂和离子电池等。近年来，人们在气凝胶的应用方面投入了大量研究精力，并取得和报道了一些有前景的成果。在本期专题中，详细介绍和讨论了生物医学、能源和传感领域的开创性及最新进展。此外，还总结了高性能低成本气凝胶合成及其应用的其他一些观点和近期挑战。
