Superflexible aerogels are highly efficient absorbents, thermal insulators, and pressure sensors

Airy, Airier, Aerogel. Until now, brittleness has limited the practical application of these delicate solids, which consist almost entirely of air-filled pores. This may now change: In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Japanese researchers have now introduced extremely elastic aerogels that are easy to process and can be produced at low cost. Their success relies on a doubly cross-linked organic-inorganic network structure with adjustable network density.