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

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 everyday products. Herein, a selfreinforcing strategy to design silica nanofibrous aerogels (SNFAs) is proposed using electrospun SiO 2 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 SiO 2 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.

Quantitative Luminescence Photography of a Swellable Hydrogel Dressing with a Traffic‐Light Response to Oxygen

“…In this case, lifetime‐based techniques would be preferable, either alongside fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for 2D analysis of drugs in skin, [ 75,76 ] or using a wearable device which continuously monitors phosphorescence lifetime. [ 63,64,77 ] Incorporation of oxygen‐sensing materials into stretchable ionogels developed for wearable electronics [ 78 ] or nanofibrous aerogels with highly tunable mechanical properties [ 79 ] would also be advantageous for achieving continuous monitoring. Additionally while other formulations containing our Pt‐porphyrin core molecule have undergone preclinical [ 5,15 ] [ 54,55,80 ] and clinical [ 39 ] testing to verify correlations between pO 2 and stO 2 , long term biocompatibility must still be assessed preclinically prior to use in weeping wounds.…”

Flexible Ceramic Fibers: Recent Development in Preparation and Application

“…Oxide fibers usually have high mechanical strength, low thermal conductivity, good electrical insulation and chemical stability, and can remain stable in the oxygen atmosphere. Some kinds of oxide ceramics such as, silica (SiO 2 ) [1,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], zirconia (ZrO 2 ) [2,5,[29][30][31][32][33], titania (TiO 2 ) [2,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43], zinc oxide (ZnO) [17,39,[44][45][46][47], mullite [48][49][50][51][52]…”

Shape Memory Polymer Fibers: Materials, Structures, and Applications

“…This material system not only had good self-healing performance, but also had good shape memory performance, which expanded a new idea for the application of SMPFs. Furthermore, Yao et al [111] prepared PCL fiber by electrospinning and compounded it with epoxy resin. The composites not only had good shape memory properties, but also had specific self-healing function.…”