Method of removing liquid from pores of a sol-gel monolith

A method of processing a xerogel monolith comprising pores, the method comprising:

• forming a sol comprising metal alkoxide and a catalyst at a catalyst concentration;
• gelling the sol to form a wet gel monolith;
• and
• drying and shrinking the wet gel monolith by exposing the wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming the xerogel monolith,
• wherein the catalyst, the catalyst concentration, and the temporal temperature profile are controlled and preselected to obtain the xerogel monolith having a pore diameter distribution with an average pore diameter between approximately 200 Angstroms and approximately 1500 Angstroms.

A method of processing a xerogel monolith comprising pores, the method comprising:

• forming a sol comprising metal alkoxide and a catalyst at a catalyst concentration;
• gelling the sol to form a wet gel monolith;
• and
• drying and shrinking the wet gel monolith by exposing the wet gel monolith to a temporal temperature profile, thereby forming the xerogel monolith,
• wherein the catalyst, the catalyst concentration, and the temporal temperature profile are controlled and preselected to obtain the xerogel monolith having a pore diameter distribution with an average pore diameter and at least approximately 20% of the pores having diameters within approximately ±10% of the average pore diameter.