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Self-reinforcement of Light, Temperature-Resistant Silica Nanofibrous Aerogels with Tunable Mechanical Properties

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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.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the joint financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51703024), “Chenguang Program” supported by Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (18CG37), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232018D3-18), and the Program of Shanghai Academic Research Leader (18XD1400100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of High Performance Fibers and Products, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Hao Yu, Qinghua Zhang & Meifang Zhu

  2. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Huang, Yue Zhu, Jie Zhu, Hao Yu, Qinghua Zhang & Meifang Zhu

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  1. Tao Huang
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  2. Yue Zhu
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  4. Hao Yu
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Correspondence to Hao Yu.

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Huang, T., Zhu, Y., Zhu, J. et al. Self-reinforcement of Light, Temperature-Resistant Silica Nanofibrous Aerogels with Tunable Mechanical Properties. Adv. Fiber Mater. 2, 338–347 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-020-00054-8

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