On Mar 16, 2008, at 3:41 PM, Jake Anderson wrote: >> I was wandering thru the supermarket the other when I noticed >> there's a >> silica gel version. Apparently it works quite well as kitty >> litter, but I'm >> more interested in it as dessicant (aka little bags of 'Do Not >> Eat'). This >> stuff is crystal clear, not the brown clay stuff. It appeared some years ago in the US mainland, and I immediately bought a bag based on enthusiasm similar to yours. I haven't done anything with it yet; not even used it as kitty litter. >> The only odd thing was the package stated 'the water will >> evaporate at room >> temperature, trapping the odors', but silica gel needs over 100 >> degree >> celcius to dry out. Yeah. Normally silica gel is used to suck away atmospheric moisture. I'm not sure what it will do when used to absorb liquids. Presumably "dry out" means some sort of equilibrium with atmospheric humidity that doesn't smell. > > I'm interested as silica gel is the feed stock for aerogel otherwise > I'll have to try the agar based version. You need to start with soluble silica forms to get to aerogels, as far as I know. "Silica gel" (or even "fumed silica") is much too far along the way to a traditional solid. Usually tetraethoxysilane, apparently (see ) What is this "agar based version" you speak of? BillW -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist