Way to a Library of Ti-Series Oxide Nanofiber Sponges that are Highly Stretchable, Compressible, and Bendable.

Ti-series oxide ceramics in the form of aerogels, such as TiO, SrTiO, BaTiO, and CaCuTiO, hold tremendous potential as functional materials owing to their excellent optical, dielectric, and catalytic properties. Unfortunately, these inorganic aerogels are usually brittle and prone to pulverization owing to weak inter-particulate interactions, resulting in restricted application performance and serious health risks. Herein, a novel strategy is reported to synthesize an elastic form of an aerogel-like, highly porous structure, in which activity-switchable Ti-series oxide sols transform from the metastable state to the active state during electrospinning, resulting in condensation and solidification at the whipping stage to obtain curled nanofibers.

Multiscale Interpenetrated/Interconnected Network Design Confers All-Carbon Aerogels with Unprecedented Thermomechanical Properties for Thermal Insulation under Extreme Environments.

With ultralight weight, low thermal conductivity, and extraordinary high-temperature resistance, carbon aerogels hold tremendous potential against severe thermal threats encountered by hypersonic vehicles during the in-orbit operation and re-entry process. However, current 3D aerogels are plagued by irreconcilable contradictions between adiabatic and mechanical performance due to monotonicity of the building blocks or uncontrollable assembly behavior. Herein, a spatially confined assembly strategy of multiscale low-dimensional nanocarbons is reported to decouple the stress and heat transfer.

Elastic and compressible AlO/ZrO/LaO nanofibrous membranes for firefighting protective clothing.

Developing ceramic nanofibrous membranes for the thermal insulation layer of firefighting protective clothing is vital. However, previous ceramic nanofibrous membranes were brittle and easy to break during service in high-temperature environments. The lack of elastic and compressible properties has limited the high-end applications of ceramic nanofibrous membranes.

Direct synthesis of highly stretchable ceramic nanofibrous aerogels via 3D reaction electrospinning.

Ceramic aerogels are attractive for many applications due to their ultralow density, high porosity, and multifunctionality but are limited by the typical trade-off relationship between mechanical properties and thermal stability when used in extreme environments. In this work, we design and synthesize ceramic nanofibrous aerogels with three-dimensional (3D) interwoven crimped-nanofibre structures that endow the aerogels with superior mechanical performances and high thermal stability. These ceramic aerogels are synthesized by a direct and facile route, 3D reaction electrospinning.

All-Ceramic and Elastic Aerogels with Nanofibrous-Granular Binary Synergistic Structure for Thermal Superinsulation.

High-performance thermally insulating ceramic materials with robust mechanical properties, high-temperature resistance, and excellent thermal insulation characteristics are highly desirable for thermal management systems under extreme conditions. However, the large-scale application of traditional ceramic granular aerogels is still limited by their brittleness and stiff nature, while ceramic fibrous aerogels often display high thermal conductivity. To meet the above requirements, in this study, ceramic nanofibrous-granular composite aerogels with lamellar multiarch cellular structure and leaf-like fibrous-granular binary networks are designed and fabricated.

Ultrastrong, Superelastic, and Lamellar Multiarch Structured ZrO-AlO Nanofibrous Aerogels with High-Temperature Resistance over 1300 °C.

Advanced ceramic aerogel materials with a performance combining sufficient mechanical robustness and splendid high-temperature resistance are urgently needed as thermal insulators in harsh environments. However, the practical applications of ceramic aerogel materials are always limited by poor mechanical performance and degradation under thermal shock. Here, we report the facile creation of lamellar multiarch structured ceramic nanofibrous aerogels that are simultaneously ultrastrong, superelastic, and high temperature resistant by combining ZrO-AlO nanofibers with Al(HPO) matrices.

Highly flexible, mesoporous structured, and metallic Cu-doped C/SiO nanofibrous membranes for efficient catalytic oxidative elimination of antibiotic pollutants.

The development of inorganic membranous catalysts with both large mesopores and superb flexibility is extremely favorable for the enhancement of their catalytic oxidation activity for the degradation of antibiotic pollutants in wastewater via sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes; however, there still exists a huge challenge for inorganic materials to simultaneously realize these two properties. Herein, metallic copper-doped carbon/silica nanofibrous membranes (Cu@C/SiO2 NFMs) with large mesopores, superb flexibility, and robust mechanical strength were fabricated through a sol-gel electrospinning and subsequent in situ carbonization reduction method. The synthesized Cu nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed throughout the mesoporous C/SiO2 nanofiber matrix, which enabled the resultant Cu@C/SiO2 NFMs to be applied as heterogeneous catalysts, and their catalytic performance was systematically assessed through activating persulfate for the elimination of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) in water.

Hierarchical Cellular Structured Ceramic Nanofibrous Aerogels with Temperature-Invariant Superelasticity for Thermal Insulation.

Silica aerogels are attractive for thermal insulation due to their low thermal conductivity and good heat resistance performance. However, the fabrication of silica aerogels with temperature-invariant superelasticity and ultralow thermal conductivity has remained extremely challenging. Herein, we designed and synthesized a hierarchical cellular structured silica nanofibrous aerogel by using electrospun SiO nanofibers (SNFs) and SiO nanoparticle aerogels (SNAs) as the matrix and SiO sol as the high-temperature nanoglue.