Can aerogels help clean up toxic spills?
Let’s say the morning fumbles get the better of you and instead of going in your cereal bowl, half a pint of milk splashes all over the kitchen floor. What do you do? Assuming the household pet doesn’t swoop in for the most awesome accidental breakfast ever, you’ll probably want to sop up all that spilled milk with a towel or sponge. But when big spills hit our environment, scientists think the best sponge is the one made out of aerogel, a low-density solid that resembles a cross between a slice of Jell-O and a brick of smoke. A normal gel is essentially a solid riddled with tiny holes called nanopores, which are in turn filled with liquid. An aerogel, however, features nanopores filled with gas. Chemists create this property by drying an alcohol-based gel supercritically, or at a temperature and pressure above its critical point. (This is the moment when a liquid and its vapor become identical.) When the alcohol evaporates, the porous structure remains. Still curious? There’s more inf
