Abstract

Silica aerogels have attracted significant interest in thermal insulation applications because of their low thermal conductivity and great thermal stability, however, their fragility has limited their application in every-day products. Herein, a self-reinforcing strategy to design silica nanofibrous aerogels (SNFAs) is proposed using electrospun SiO₂ nanofibers as the matrix and a silica sol as a high-temperature nanoglue. Adopting this approach results in a strong and compatible interfacial interaction between the SiO₂ fibers and the silica sol, which results in the SNFAs exhibiting high-temperature-resistant and tunable mechanical properties from elastic to rigid. Furthermore, additional properties such as low density, high thermal insulation performance, and fire-resistance are still retained. The self-reinforcing method described herein may be extended to numerous other new ceramic aerogels that require robust mechanical properties and high-temperature resistance.

Graphic Abstract

中文翻译：

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具有可调机械性能的轻质，耐高温二氧化硅纳米纤维气凝胶的自增强

摘要

二氧化硅气凝胶由于导热系数低和热稳定性好而在隔热应用中引起了极大的兴趣，但是，其易碎性限制了其在日常产品中的应用。在此，提出了使用电纺SiO ₂纳米纤维作为基质和硅溶胶作为高温纳米胶来设计二氧化硅纳米纤维气凝胶（SNFA）的自增强策略。采用这种方法会导致SiO ₂之间的牢固且相容的界面相互作用纤维和硅溶胶，导致SNFA表现出从弹性到刚性的耐高温和可调节的机械性能。此外，仍保留了诸如低密度，高绝热性能和耐火性的附加特性。本文所述的自增强方法可以扩展到需要鲁棒的机械性能和耐高温性的许多其他新型陶瓷气凝胶。

图形摘要