Dear Colleagues,

The United Nations established seventeen Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved in the next decade, which address several current global challenges. Part of these goals is linked to reversing climate change and environmental degradation through approaches that avoid wasting water, generate clean energy, stimulate the recycling of materials, and reduce global warming and the incidence of pollutants and wastes.

The design of new advanced materials may greatly contribute to innovative technological solutions that will aid the accomplishment of the referred goals. On a global scale, there are many materials that are applied for environmental applications, such as agricultural biomass/waste, carbonaceous and mineral-based materials, nanomaterials, metal and carbon organic frameworks (MOFs and COFs, respectively), etc. Gels are another significant category, which are chemically versatile materials in terms of their composition and show high interface areas. The latter can be excellent platforms for intensification of interactions between compounds. Moreover, the possibility of adding/mixing new phases that will be retained either by simple physical entrapment or by the formation of chemical bonds opens new possibilities to tailor the final material properties to specific environmental-inspired applications and unusual performance targets. These end-uses can include membranes, catalysts, adsorbents, and superinsulators, among others.

Gels may be used in wet state, as in the case of hydrogels, or be dried by several strategies to remove the swelling agents, still retaining their porous structure. Supercritical drying or freeze-thawing are the most prominent examples of methods that allow the drying of gels, often maintaining intact the pore size distribution of the solid network. Very singular mesoporous materials, such as aerogels and cryogels, can be prepared by these methods. Nonetheless, the use of green routes and sustainable precursors for the synthesis of these materials cannot be disregarded, nor can the possibility to reuse them several times or to reintroduce them in their own synthesis.

Considering all the above, this Special Issue targets the latest trends and advances on engineered gels for environmental applications, including energy storage and/or conversion, clean energy production, thermal and acoustic insulation, water and soil remediation, agriculture, soil erosion, and recycling of materials and/or wastes. Emphasis will be given to the utilization of new gel formulations fabricated with an eco-friendly (green) way.

This Special Issue is an initiative of the AERoGELS (CA18125—Advanced Engineering and Research of aeroGels for Environment and Life Sciences) Action (https://cost-aerogels.eu) by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) that aims to boost the development of aerogels for biomedical and environmental applications by setting up a multidisciplinary knowledge-based network from technological, scientific, and market points of view.

Prof. Dr. Luísa Durães
Prof. Dr. Artur J.M. Valente
Dr. Ioannis Anastopoulos
Dr. Nicolas Brun
Guest Editors

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