Anisotropic Aerogels by Photolithography

Sol-gel techniques are being employed to fabricate components not only for mainstream applications such as photonics, thermal insulation, electronics and microfluidics, but also for more exotic applications such as space dust and radiation collectors [1]. Methods have been developed to tailor the physical properties of sol-gel materials to the requirements of a specific application. For example, porosity and pore size distribution can be controlled by forming micelles in a sol [2-4-] gels can be made hydrophobic by derivatizing the otherwise hydrophilic pore walls with hydrophobic moieties [5] superhydrophilicity can be obtained by ultraviolet irradiation [6, 7] mechanical strength can be increased by cross-linking the oxide nanoparticles that make up the gel [1, 8, 9], and optical properties can be controlled by adding chromophores and nanoparticles to control index of refraction, absorption and luminescence [10-12]. 

Bertino Department of Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA e-mail mfbertino vcu.edu 

Aegerter et al. (eds.). Aerogels Handbook, Advances in Sol-Gel Derived Materials and Technologies, DOI 10.1007/978-l-4419-7589-8 19, 

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