Progress on Universal Methods to Prepare Monolithic Aerogels

The traditional sol-gel (TS) method, epoxide (EP) method and dispersed inorganic sol-gel (DIS) method which are the main synthetic routes to the multi-group and multi-period monolithic aerogels are very significant in their application fields, respectively. Given its advantages in preparing monolithic aerogels, the DIS method is focally introduced. The DIS method uses the inorganic metal salt as precursor (avoiding the use of the metal alkoxide), as well as the low molecular weight polyacrylic acid as dispersant and template, followed by aging and supercritical fluid drying, to prepare various (multi-periods and multigroups) wellformed and high-strength monolithic aerogels, combining the advantages of traditional sol-gel method and epoxide method. And the impurities of the aerogels can be easily removed via a thermal treatment. Based on those above, the DIS method is hopeful to be an accepted universal method on aerogels preparation and has good application prospects.