Polyimide
(PI) aerogel is a good thermal insulation material with
the highest temperature resistance in practical application. But the
mechanical strength of PI aerogels prepared by freeze-drying or thermoimide
methods is weak. In this research, TPU was selected as an aging solution
to solve the problem of the low mechanical strength of PI aerogel
prepared by the freeze-drying method. Previous work has certified
that the coupling of PI and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) can enhance
the mechanical strength of PI aerogel to a certain extent due to the
flexibility of TPU. But excessive TPU will change the PI structure
in the cross-linking process and decrease the mechanical strength
of the aerogel. Thus, a new kind of PI gel modification method was
provided by using TPU as an aging solution, and the mechanical strength
of PI aerogel is improved to 3.06 MPa. Furthermore, the shrinkage,
specific surface area, waterproof angle, and thermal conductivity
all show good performance, thus enabling PI aerogel to be used in
many aspects. Specially, the method is simple and can be used to prepare
some other high-strength aerogels.