Flexible and Transparent Silica Aerogels: An Overview

Silica aerogels are attracting attention due to certain outstanding properties such as low bulk density, low thermal conductivity, high surface area, high porosity, high transparency and flexibility. Due to these extraordinary properties of aerogels, they have become a promising candidate in thermal superinsulation. The silica-based aerogels are brittle in nature, which constrains their large scale-application. It is necessary to achieve transparency and flexibility of silica-based aerogels at the same time and with the same porous structure for optical field applications. Therefore, the present review focuses on the different sol-gel synthesis parameters and precursors in the synthesis of flexible as well as transparent silica aerogels. Also, a brief overview of reported flexible and transparent aerogels with some important properties and applications is provided. Key words: Porous ceramics, Thermal conductivity, Flexible aerogels, Transparency, Sol-gel process