51�Թ�

Led by Po-Yen Chen, assistant professor in UMD's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, the accelerated method to create aerogel materials used in wearable heating applications -- published June 1 in the journal Nature Communications- could automate design processes for new materials.

But despite their seemingly simplistic nature, the aerogel assembly line is complex; researchers rely on time-intensive experiments and experience-based approaches to explore a vast design space and design the materials.

Looking ahead, Chen's group will conduct studies to understand the microstructures responsible for aerogel flexibility and strength properties.

The team says their tool can also be expanded to meet other applications in aerogel design -- such as green technologies used in oil spill cleanup, sustainable energy storage, and thermal energy products like insulating windows.

The aerogel, with a thickness of about 3 millimetres -- roughly the width of 40 strands of human hair -- demonstrated an impressive performance of absorbing 99.99 per cent of EMW energy.