Issue 26, 2024

Fatigue-resistant and thermal insulating polyimide nanofibrous aerogels with temperature-invariant flexibility and nanofiber–lamella crosslinking architecture

Abstract

Nanofibrous aerogels with excellent flexibility and compressibility, assembled from one-dimensional nanofibers, are attractive candidates for flexible thermal protection. However, achieving high mechanical stability of the three-dimensional network of nanofibers remains challenging owing to the weak interactions between the nanofibers. Herein, we report a new strategy of crosslinking nanofibers with two-dimensional lamellae for the construction of fatigue-resistant polyimide nanofibrous aerogels (PINAs) with temperature-invariant flexibility. The interaction between the nanofibers and the lamellae results in a self-assembled network with high nodal articulation and strong crosslinking between the nanofibers. The stable crosslinking structure between the nanofibers and lamellae also provides the PINAs with temperature-invariant flexibility (−196 °C to 300 °C), good mechanical properties and a high strain recovery rate of 97% (10 000 compression–release cycles at 75% strain). More significantly, when suffering from a large strain (≥95%), the PINAs can be repeatedly compressed for 100 cycles with little structural degradation, highlighting their good resilience. In addition, the resulting PINAs exhibit a low thermal conductivity of 26.4 mW m−1 K−1 at room temperature, which can be applied as flexible thermal insulators. These nanofibrous aerogels with a nanofiber–lamella crosslinking architecture may provide new insights into the development of ultralight aerogel materials with excellent resilience and stability.

Graphical abstract: Fatigue-resistant and thermal insulating polyimide nanofibrous aerogels with temperature-invariant flexibility and nanofiber–lamella crosslinking architecture

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 apr 2024
Accepted
16 mai 2024
First published
21 mai 2024

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024,12, 15641-15650

Fatigue-resistant and thermal insulating polyimide nanofibrous aerogels with temperature-invariant flexibility and nanofiber–lamella crosslinking architecture

T. Xue, X. Zhao, F. Yang, J. Tian, Y. Qin, X. Guo, W. Fan and T. Liu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024, 12, 15641 DOI: 10.1039/D4TA02270J

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