IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-42703-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Su

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Shuhai Jia

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Junqiang Ren

    (Lanzhou University of Technology)

  • Xuefeng Lu

    (Lanzhou University of Technology)

  • Sheng-Wu Guo

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Pengfei Guo

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Zhixin Cai

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • De Lu

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Min Niu

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Lei Zhuang

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Kang Peng

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Hongjie Wang

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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, 2023. "Strong yet flexible ceramic aerogel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-42703-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42703-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42703-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-42703-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xingxu Yan & Chengyan Liu & Chaitanya A. Gadre & Lei Gu & Toshihiro Aoki & Tracy C. Lovejoy & Niklas Dellby & Ondrej L. Krivanek & Darrell G. Schlom & Ruqian Wu & Xiaoqing Pan, 2021. "Single-defect phonons imaged by electron microscopy," Nature, Nature, vol. 589(7840), pages 65-69, January.
    2. Zhengzhong Shao & Fritz Vollrath, 2002. "Surprising strength of silkworm silk," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6899), pages 741-741, August.
    3. Jingran Guo & Shubin Fu & Yuanpeng Deng & Xiang Xu & Shujin Laima & Dizhou Liu & Pengyu Zhang & Jian Zhou & Han Zhao & Hongxuan Yu & Shixuan Dang & Jianing Zhang & Yingde Zhao & Hui Li & Xiangfeng Dua, 2022. "Hypocrystalline ceramic aerogels for thermal insulation at extreme conditions," Nature, Nature, vol. 606(7916), pages 909-916, June.
    4. Shanyu Zhao & Gilberto Siqueira & Sarka Drdova & David Norris & Christopher Ubert & Anne Bonnin & Sandra Galmarini & Michal Ganobjak & Zhengyuan Pan & Samuel Brunner & Gustav Nyström & Jing Wang & Mat, 2020. "Additive manufacturing of silica aerogels," Nature, Nature, vol. 584(7821), pages 387-392, August.
    5. Chao Jia & Lei Li & Ying Liu & Ben Fang & He Ding & Jianan Song & Yibo Liu & Kejia Xiang & Sen Lin & Ziwei Li & Wenjie Si & Bo Li & Xing Sheng & Dongze Wang & Xiaoding Wei & Hui Wu, 2020. "Highly compressible and anisotropic lamellar ceramic sponges with superior thermal insulation and acoustic absorption performances," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feng Xiong & Jiawei Zhou & Yongkang Jin & Zitao Zhang & Mulin Qin & Haiwei Han & Zhenghui Shen & Shenghui Han & Xiaoye Geng & Kaihang Jia & Ruqiang Zou, 2024. "Thermal shock protection with scalable heat-absorbing aerogels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Xiangyu Meng & Chuntong Zhu & Xin Wang & Zehua Liu & Mengmeng Zhu & Kuibo Yin & Ran Long & Liuning Gu & Xinxing Shao & Litao Sun & Yueming Sun & Yunqian Dai & Yujie Xiong, 2023. "Hierarchical triphase diffusion photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical gas/liquid flow conversion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Kit-Ying Chan & Xi Shen & Jie Yang & Keng-Te Lin & Harun Venkatesan & Eunyoung Kim & Heng Zhang & Jeng-Hun Lee & Jinhong Yu & Jinglei Yang & Jang-Kyo Kim, 2022. "Scalable anisotropic cooling aerogels by additive freeze-casting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Lei Li & Yiqian Zhou & Yang Gao & Xuning Feng & Fangshu Zhang & Weiwei Li & Bin Zhu & Ze Tian & Peixun Fan & Minlin Zhong & Huichang Niu & Shanyu Zhao & Xiaoding Wei & Jia Zhu & Hui Wu, 2023. "Large-scale assembly of isotropic nanofiber aerogels based on columnar-equiaxed crystal transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Xiaoyu Zhang & Qi Sun & Xing Liang & Puzhong Gu & Zhenyu Hu & Xiao Yang & Muxiang Liu & Zejun Sun & Jia Huang & Guangming Wu & Guoqing Zu, 2024. "Stretchable and negative-Poisson-ratio porous metamaterials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Xiaota Cheng & Yi-Tao Liu & Yang Si & Jianyong Yu & Bin Ding, 2022. "Direct synthesis of highly stretchable ceramic nanofibrous aerogels via 3D reaction electrospinning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. D. Eliaz & S. Paul & D. Benyamin & A. Cernescu & S. R. Cohen & I. Rosenhek-Goldian & O. Brookstein & M. E. Miali & A. Solomonov & M. Greenblatt & Y. Levy & U. Raviv & A. Barth & U. Shimanovich, 2022. "Micro and nano-scale compartments guide the structural transition of silk protein monomers into silk fibers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Huimin He & Xi Wei & Bin Yang & Hongzhen Liu & Mingze Sun & Yanran Li & Aixin Yan & Chuyang Y. Tang & Yuan Lin & Lizhi Xu, 2022. "Ultrastrong and multifunctional aerogels with hyperconnective network of composite polymeric nanofibers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    9. Lishan Li & Guandu Yang & Jing Lyu & Zhizhi Sheng & Fengguo Ma & Xuetong Zhang, 2023. "Folk arts-inspired twice-coagulated configuration-editable tough aerogels enabled by transformable gel precursors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Minju Song & Yoonkyum Kim & Du San Baek & Ho Young Kim & Da Hwi Gu & Haiyang Li & Benjamin V. Cunning & Seong Eun Yang & Seung Hwae Heo & Seunghyun Lee & Minhyuk Kim & June Sung Lim & Hu Young Jeong &, 2023. "3D microprinting of inorganic porous materials by chemical linking-induced solidification of nanocrystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Jianming Chen & Arata Tsuchida & Ali D. Malay & Kousuke Tsuchiya & Hiroyasu Masunaga & Yui Tsuji & Mako Kuzumoto & Kenji Urayama & Hirofumi Shintaku & Keiji Numata, 2024. "Replicating shear-mediated self-assembly of spider silk through microfluidics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Feng Jin & Jie Liu & Yuan-Yuan Zhao & Xian-Zi Dong & Mei-Ling Zheng & Xuan-Ming Duan, 2022. "λ/30 inorganic features achieved by multi-photon 3D lithography," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Lin, Zizhen & Ping, Xiaofan & Zhao, Dongming & Cai, Zihe & Wang, Xingtao & Zhang, Chi & Wang, Lichuang & Li, Menglei & Chen, Xiongfei & Niu, Jingkai & Xue, Yao & Liu, Yun & Li, Xinlian & Qin, Xiaojun , 2024. "A biomimetic non-woven fabric with passive thermal-insulation and active heat-recovering," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    14. Yinglai Hou & Zhizhi Sheng & Chen Fu & Jie Kong & Xuetong Zhang, 2022. "Hygroscopic holey graphene aerogel fibers enable highly efficient moisture capture, heat allocation and microwave absorption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Lei Zhuang & De Lu & Jijun Zhang & Pengfei Guo & Lei Su & Yuanbin Qin & Peng Zhang & Liang Xu & Min Niu & Kang Peng & Hongjie Wang, 2023. "Highly cross-linked carbon tube aerogels with enhanced elasticity and fatigue resistance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Dingding Zong & Leitao Cao & Xia Yin & Yang Si & Shichao Zhang & Jianyong Yu & Bin Ding, 2021. "Flexible ceramic nanofibrous sponges with hierarchically entangled graphene networks enable noise absorption," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    17. Tom Lee & Ji Qi & Chaitanya A. Gadre & Huaixun Huyan & Shu-Ting Ko & Yunxing Zuo & Chaojie Du & Jie Li & Toshihiro Aoki & Ruqian Wu & Jian Luo & Shyue Ping Ong & Xiaoqing Pan, 2023. "Atomic-scale origin of the low grain-boundary resistance in perovskite solid electrolyte Li0.375Sr0.4375Ta0.75Zr0.25O3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Benjamin Tawiah & Emmanuel A. Ofori & Fei Bin, 2023. "Scientometric Review of Sustainable Fire-Resistant Polysaccharide-Based Composite Aerogels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-34, August.
    19. Huawei Qu & Chongjian Gao & Kaizheng Liu & Hongya Fu & Zhiyuan Liu & Paul H. J. Kouwer & Zhenyu Han & Changshun Ruan, 2024. "Gradient matters via filament diameter-adjustable 3D printing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    20. Gaudia, Garizaldy G., 2022. "Improving the quality of silk yarn and fabric using various edible oils during pre-treatment," MPRA Paper 116655, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-42703-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.