Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

The things that fall into my brain at odd moments ... (maybe I do need that Faraday coif after all?) ...

Is it possible to make something like an aerogel out of metal instead of silica? If so, would it still be called an aerogel, or would it just be "metal foam"? One web page I read suggested that an aerogel could be made from "anything that can be dissolved", which would suggest that it could be done with metal (but would the atomic properties of metals interfere with formation of the gel, and/or would structuring a metal as an aerogel result in a nonmetallic substance made of a metal element?) ...

The thought that started this was that I suddenly imagined what fun it would be to create sculptures out of a brass aerogel. Assuming that we can create metal gels, would it matter that we started with an alloy instead of a single element? (Argh -- more web surfing to do, because I've reminded myself that there are things I ought to know about alloys but don't. If my understanding is correct, an alloy is not a compound, but I'm not sure whether it's simply a mixture or whether it's some funky special state in between a mixture and a compound because metals do funny things with their electrons, things of which the Moral Majority probably would not approve.) I could see switching my vague project ideas to alumin[i]um or tin if an alloy would be bad. Or maybe copper ... but wow, what happens to an aerogel as it oxidizes? I'd hate to wind up with nothing but a cc or so of fine green dust a year later.

(Though of course the right artistic themes and some creative marketing could turn the ephemeral nature of such a scultpture into a positive attribute. Like if you could make soap-bubble art last long enough to sell on eBay, eh?)

I need to open a whole bunch more browser windows, but I'm low on RAM. So I must either finish what I was doing with all the windows I've got open, or fire up another computer to run a web browser on. Or probably just go back to bed, because it's obvious I still need sleep. At least when the noise in my brain-circuitry randomly produces a signal-like structure it's often entertaining to me ... (yeah, the Faraday coif would be to protect y'all from having stuff get beamed out of my head -- :-P ). Okay, okay, right, time to either post to talk.bizarre or go to bed, right. I'll find out whether I was really awake now when I get up later and find out whether this entry actually exists in my journal.

But the more I think about it, the more I think that mere "metal foam" would suffice for the first ideas that came to mind, but despite that, the more nifty I think the notion of a metallic aerogel is for sheer "because it's there" value.

So where do I buy brass open-cell foam? No, wait, wrong question ... How can I make soap bubbles last long enough for an eBay auction? No, wait, still the wrong question ... Has anyone made electroluminescent aerogels? Wait, so wrong a question that, well, where the heck did that one come from? Why am I not already back in bed? Right question. Good mNoIrGnHiTn'!