TY - JOUR
T1 - Fatigue-resistant and thermal insulating polyimide nanofibrous aerogels with temperature-invariant flexibility and nanofiber-lamella crosslinking architecture
AU - Xue, Tiantian
AU - Zhao, Xingyu
AU - Yang, Fan
AU - Tian, Jing
AU - Qin, Yong
AU - Guo, Xiaogang
AU - Fan, Wei
AU - Liu, Tianxi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
PY - 2024/5/21
Y1 - 2024/5/21
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194351631&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/d4ta02270j
DO - 10.1039/d4ta02270j
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85194351631
SN - 2050-7488
VL - 12
SP - 15641
EP - 15650
JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
IS - 26
ER -