Mechanically strong polyimide aerogels cross-linked with low-cost polymers.

Polyimide aerogels were prepared using low-cost polymers with different structure capped polyamide oligomers serving as cross-linking agents. To investigate the effects of the anhydride density on cross-linker chain units and side groups of cross-linkers on their properties and microstructures, two kinds of polymers from maleic anhydride, endic anhydride, and styrene were prepared by simple radical polymerization. The polyimide aerogels exhibit densities as low as 0.

Implementing an Air Suction Effect Induction Strategy to Create Super Thermally Insulating and Superelastic SiC Aerogels.

Silicon carbide (SiC) aerogels are promising thermal insulators that are lightweight and possess high thermal stability. However, their application is hindered by their brittleness. Herein, an air suction effect induction (ASEI) strategy is proposed to fabricate a super thermally insulating SiC aerogel (STISA).

Improvement of the Thermal Insulation Performance of Silica Aerogel by Proper Heat Treatment: Microporous Structures Changes and Pyrolysis Mechanism.

A simple heat treatment method was used to optimize the three-dimensional network structure of the hydrophobic aerogel, and during the heat treatment process at 200-1000 °C, the thermal conductivity of the aerogel reached the lowest to 0.02240 W/m·K between 250 °C and 300 °C, which was mainly due to the optimization of microstructure and pyrolysis of surface groups. Further Fluent heat-transfer simulation also confirmed the above results.

Mechanically Strong and Tailorable Polyimide Aerogels Prepared with Novel Silicone Polymer Crosslinkers.

Polyimide (PI) aerogels were prepared using self-designed silicone polymer cross-linkers with multi-amino from low-cost silane coupling agents to replace conventional small-molecule cross-linkers. The long-chain structure of silicone polymers provides more crosslinking points than small-molecule cross-linkers, thus improving the mechanical properties of polyimide. To investigate the effects of amino content and degree of polymerization on the properties of silicone polymers, the different silicone polymers and their cross-linked PI aerogels were prepared.

"Robust-Soft" Anisotropic Nanofibrillated Cellulose Aerogels with Superior Mechanical, Flame-Retardant, and Thermal Insulating Properties.

Advanced thermal insulation materials with low thermal conductivity and robustness derived from regenerative resources are badly needed for building energy conservation. Among them, nanofibrillated cellulose aerogels have huge application potential in the field of thermal insulation materials, but it is still a challenge to prepare cellulose aerogels of excellent comprehensive properties in a simple way. Herein, we demonstrate a unidirectional freeze-drying strategy to develop a novel "robust-soft" anisotropic nanofibrillated cellulose aerogel (NFC-Si-T) by integrating nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and Si-O-Si bonding networks under the catalytic dehydration of -toluenesulfonic acid (TsOH).

Cagelike CoSe@N-Doped Carbon Aerogels with Pseudocapacitive Properties as Advanced Materials for Sodium-Ion Batteries with Excellent Rate Performance and Cyclic Stability.

Electrochemical conversion reaction based electrodes offer a high sodium storage capacity in rechargeable batteries by utilizing the variable valence states of transition metals. Thus, transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) as such materials have been intensively investigated in recent years to explore the possibilities of practical application in rechargeable sodium-ion batteries; however, it is hindered by poor rate performance and a high-cost preparation method. In addition, some issues in regards to conversion reactions remain poorly understood, including incomplete reversible reaction processes, polarization, and hysteresis.

Dual-Functional Multichannel Carbon Framework Embedded with CoS Nanoparticles: Promoting the Phase Transformation for High-Loading Li-S Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur batteries have been considered as one of the most promising energy storage devices due to their high theoretical capacity and low cost. They go through complicated multistep electrochemical reactions from solid (sulfur)-liquid (soluble polysulfide) to liquid (soluble polysulfide)-solid (LiS) during the discharge process. Actually, during this process, the transition from liquid phase (LiS) to solid phase (LiS) at 2.

Layer-Spacing-Enlarged MoS Superstructural Nanotubes with Further Enhanced Catalysis and Immobilization for Li-S Batteries.

A layer-spacing-enlarged MoS nanotube (LE-MoS) consisting of hierarchical superstructural nanosheets (-MoS-carbon layer-MoS-) was fabricated and served as the sulfur host. The (002) lattice plane of LE-MoS is greatly expanded to 1.04 nm and 67.

A long life sodium-selenium cathode by encapsulating selenium into N-doped interconnected carbon aerogels.

Selenium cathodes have attracted a great deal of attention due to their much higher electronic conductivity compared to sulfur cathodes and similar volumetric capacity to them. However, selenium cathodes still suffer from rapid capacity fading because of low utilization of active materials, high volume changes and the shuttle effect of polyselenides. Herein, we prepared selenium-carbon aerogel composites as cathodes for sodium-selenium batteries by infiltrating selenium into the microporous structure of N-doped interconnected carbon aerogels (Se@NCAs).

Nanoflower-like N-doped C/CoS as high-performance anode materials for Na-ion batteries.

Novel nanoflower-like N-doped C/CoS2 spheres assembled from 2D wrinkled CoS2 nanosheets were synthesized through a facile one-pot solvothermal method followed by sulfurization. Ascribed to the optimized 3D nanostructure and rational surface engineering, the unique hierarchical structure of the nanoflower-like C/CoS2 composites showed an excellent sodium ion storage capacity accompanied by high specific capacity, superior rate performance and long-term cycling stability. Specifically, the conductive interconnected wrinkled nanosheets create a number of mesoporous structures and thus can greatly release the mechanical stress caused by Na+ insertion/extraction.

Double-Morphology CoS Anchored on N-Doped Multichannel Carbon Nanofibers as High-Performance Anode Materials for Na-Ion Batteries.

Na-ion batteries (NIBs) have attracted increasing attention given the fact that sodium is relatively more plentiful and affordable than lithium for sustainable and large-scale energy storage systems. However, the shortage of electrode materials with outstanding comprehensive properties has limited the practical implementations of NIBs. Among all the discovered anode materials, transition-metal sulfide has been proven as one of the most competitive and promising ones due to its excellent redox reversibility and relatively high theoretical capacity.

Facile construction of the aerogel/geopolymer composite with ultra-low thermal conductivity and high mechanical performance.

In this work, we have successfully prepared a lightweight, highly hydrophobic and superb thermal insulating aerogel/geopolymer composite by a sol-gel immersion method. After silica aerogel was impregnated, the composite exhibited nano-porous structures. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that the aerogel particles were tightly anchored on the geopolymer surface.

CoS Nanoparticles Wrapping on Flexible Freestanding Multichannel Carbon Nanofibers with High Performance for Na-Ion Batteries.

Exploration for stable and high-powered electrode materials is significant due to the growing demand for energy storage and also challengeable to the development and application of Na-ion batteries (NIBs). Among all promising electrode materials for NIBs, transition-mental sulfides have been identified as potential candidates owing to their distinct physics-chemistry characteristics. In this work, CoS nanomaterials anchored into multichannel carbon nanofibers (MCNFs), synthesized via a facile solvothermal method with a sulfidation process, are studied as flexible free-standing electrode materials for NIBs.