aerogel

aero·gel | \ ˈer-ō-ˌjel

plural aerogels

Definition of aerogel

: a light, highly porous solid formed by replacement of liquid in a gel (see gel entry 1 sense 1) with a gas so that the resulting solid is the same size as the original By extracting the fluid from a wet gel under pressure and at a high temperature he was able to produce extremely light materials with porosities as high as 98 percent. Kistler called the solids aerogels.— Jochen Fricke Silica aerogel is so light that engineers sometimes call it "solid smoke." This low weight combined with excellent sound, thermal and electrical insulating properties would make aerogel ideal for a host of consumer products, were it not so expensive to produce. — Popular Mechanics

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