Silica shrinkage reversion

Making Shrinkage Reversible by Surface Modification (Silica Cels)... 

S. S. Prakash, C. J. Brinker, A. J. Hurd, and S. M. Rao, Silica aerogel films prepared at ambient pressure by using surface derivatization to induce reversible drying shrinkage. Nature (London) 374, 439-443 (1995). 

Instead of preventing shrinkage, one may also try to make it reversible. To this aim. Smith et al. (1995b) modified the surface of the silica matrix before drying. The underlying idea is as follows in unmodified silica gels, when pore walls get into close... 

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