Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel
Abstract Ceramic aerogels are highly efficient, lightweight, and chemically stable thermal insulation materials but their application is hindered by their brittleness and low strength. Flexible nanostructure-assembled compressible aerogels have been developed to overcome the brittleness but they sti...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42703-7 |
| _version_ | 1797636785347493888 |
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| author | Lei Su Shuhai Jia Junqiang Ren Xuefeng Lu Sheng-Wu Guo Pengfei Guo Zhixin Cai De Lu Min Niu Lei Zhuang Kang Peng Hongjie Wang |
| author_facet | Lei Su Shuhai Jia Junqiang Ren Xuefeng Lu Sheng-Wu Guo Pengfei Guo Zhixin Cai De Lu Min Niu Lei Zhuang Kang Peng Hongjie Wang |
| author_sort | Lei Su |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Ceramic aerogels are highly efficient, lightweight, and chemically stable thermal insulation materials but their application is hindered by their brittleness and low strength. Flexible nanostructure-assembled compressible aerogels have been developed to overcome the brittleness but they still show low strength, leading to insufficient load-bearing capacity. Here we designed and fabricated a laminated SiC-SiOx nanowire aerogel that exhibits reversible compressibility, recoverable buckling deformation, ductile tensile deformation, and simultaneous high strength of up to an order of magnitude larger than other ceramic aerogels. The aerogel also shows good thermal stability ranging from −196 °C in liquid nitrogen to above 1200 °C in butane blow torch, and good thermal insulation performance with a thermal conductivity of 39.3 ± 0.4 mW m−1 K−1. These integrated properties make the aerogel a promising candidate for mechanically robust and highly efficient flexible thermal insulation materials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T12:40:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e42cab753c844fd7b71cef4db24c59d3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T12:40:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-e42cab753c844fd7b71cef4db24c59d32023-11-05T12:23:43ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-11-0114111010.1038/s41467-023-42703-7Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogelLei Su0Shuhai Jia1Junqiang Ren2Xuefeng Lu3Sheng-Wu Guo4Pengfei Guo5Zhixin Cai6De Lu7Min Niu8Lei Zhuang9Kang Peng10Hongjie Wang11State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversitySchool of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metal, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metal, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of TechnologyState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityState Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong UniversityAbstract Ceramic aerogels are highly efficient, lightweight, and chemically stable thermal insulation materials but their application is hindered by their brittleness and low strength. Flexible nanostructure-assembled compressible aerogels have been developed to overcome the brittleness but they still show low strength, leading to insufficient load-bearing capacity. Here we designed and fabricated a laminated SiC-SiOx nanowire aerogel that exhibits reversible compressibility, recoverable buckling deformation, ductile tensile deformation, and simultaneous high strength of up to an order of magnitude larger than other ceramic aerogels. The aerogel also shows good thermal stability ranging from −196 °C in liquid nitrogen to above 1200 °C in butane blow torch, and good thermal insulation performance with a thermal conductivity of 39.3 ± 0.4 mW m−1 K−1. These integrated properties make the aerogel a promising candidate for mechanically robust and highly efficient flexible thermal insulation materials.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42703-7 |
| spellingShingle | Lei Su Shuhai Jia Junqiang Ren Xuefeng Lu Sheng-Wu Guo Pengfei Guo Zhixin Cai De Lu Min Niu Lei Zhuang Kang Peng Hongjie Wang Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel Nature Communications |
| title | Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| title_full | Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| title_fullStr | Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| title_full_unstemmed | Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| title_short | Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| title_sort | strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42703-7 |
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