Introducing The Springer Handbook of Aerogels

At long last—seven years in the making, thousands of hours of writing and editing, and wrangling the works of hundreds of contributors—it is my distinct pleasure to announce the publication of The Springer Handbook of Aerogels! The Springer Handbook series is the flagship research reference line of books published by SpringerNature, the world’s leading academic publisher. This particular work is available in hard copy in their largest format wielding about the maximum allowable page limit before it would have had to be two volumes, amounting to what is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and definitive resource about aerogels ever compiled. This ironically dense and heavy book about the world’s lightest solids is also available for download in pdf format and is a must-have reference for any emerging or experienced researcher in the field.

I served as co-editor for the book and contributed many chapters, including a section titled “Unit Operations” that includes five chapters walking through the basics of sol-gel, solvent exchange, shape control, drying, and postprocessing as these steps apply to aerogels. Also featured are a deep dive into the aerogel industry featuring profiles for over 50 aerogel producers and a step-by-step recipes and designs chapter with hand-picked procedures for dozens of aerogel compositions, how to build a calibrated hot plate for accurately measuring thermal conductivity of aerogels, and an updated guide on how to build and operate a supercritical dryer based on the Aerogel.org tutorial.

The book is available for purchase now and is available for download without purchase through most university library systems.