An organic aerogel or xerogel formed by a sol-gel reaction using starting materials
that exhibit similar reactivity to the most commonly used resorcinol starting material.
The new starting materials, including thio-, amine- and nitro-containing molecules
and functionalized macrocyclic molecules will produce organic xerogels and aerogels
that have improved performance in the areas of detection and sensor technology,
as well as water stream remediation. Also, further functionalization of these new
organic aerogels or xerogels will yield material that can be extracted with greater
facility than current organic aerogels.
