The Rising Aerogel Fibers: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities

Abstract

Aerogel fibers garner tremendous scientific interest due to their unique properties such as ultrahigh porosity, large specific surface area, and ultralow thermal conductivity, enabling diverse potential applications in textile, environment, energy conversion and storage, and high‐tech areas. Here, the fabrication methodologies to construct the aerogel fibers starting from nanoscale building blocks are overviewed, and the spinning thermodynamics and spinning kinetics associated with each technology are revealed. The huge pool of material choices that can be assembled into aerogel fibers is discussed. Furthermore, the fascinating properties of aerogel fibers, including mechanical, thermal, sorptive, optical, and fire‐retardant properties are elaborated on. Next, the nano‐confining functionalization strategy for aerogel fibers is particularly highlighted, touching upon the driving force for liquid encapsulation, solid–liquid interface adhesion, and interfacial stability. In addition, emerging applications in thermal management, smart wearable fabrics, water harvest, shielding, heat transfer devices, artificial muscles, and information storage, are discussed. Last, the existing challenges in the development of aerogel fibers are pointed out and light is shed on the opportunities in this burgeoning field.

Bioinspired Thermochromic Textile Based on Robust Cellulose Aerogel Fiber for Self-Adaptive Thermal Management and Dynamic Labels

“…Aerogels have great potential in the fields of safety and protection, , environment, , energy storage, and sensor , due to their unique merits such as ultrahigh porosity, large specific surface area, and ultralow thermal conductivity. , The advancement of aerogels in fiber form offers a customizable and versatile assembly strategy, and their ductile one-dimensional characteristics offer the opportunity for fiber integration into fabrics by weaving/knitting/stitching . Considering the remarkable flexibility and thermal insulation, aerogel fibers have been investigated as a promising candidate for wearable thermal management. − However, almost all environmental scenarios are very dynamic and variable in real-world situations, including fluctuations in space, time, day and night, seasons, temperature, etc. This single passive mode with thermal insulation cannot cope with the climate swing and enhance heat collection.…”

Construction of carboxymethyl chitosan @ sodium oxide alginate aerogel for efficient adsorption of malachite green

“…Among these methods, adsorbents stand out as they are relatively low‐cost, easy to prepare, and require minimal energy consumption 9 . Aerogel is a new kind of porous material with excellent scientific properties such as large surface area, low density, and high porosity 10 . In recent years, various aerogels have been studied, which have broad application prospects in the fields of dye removal and wastewater purification as adsorption media 11 …”

“…9 Aerogel is a new kind of porous material with excellent scientific properties such as large surface area, low density, and high porosity. 10 In recent years, various aerogels have been studied, which have broad application prospects in the fields of dye removal and wastewater purification as adsorption media. 11 As a new class of aerogel, biomass aerogels have the advantage that the precursor is environmentally friendly and renewable.…”

Redox Responsive Sol–Gel Transition: A New Concept for Continuous Spinning of High-Performance and Recyclable Aerogel Fibers

“…Workers in firefighting, emergency rescue, metallurgy, aerospace, and other thermo-related fields often face a variety of potential thermal disasters or extreme temperature conditions, such as flames, heat radiation, hot steam, alternating high/low temperatures, etc., which place high demands on protective clothing. − The present protective clothing material is generally composed of high-performance polymer fibers that are characterized by high mechanical property, good thermal stability, and flame retardancy. − With the development of cutting-edge industries, people put forward higher requirements for protective performance of clothes in a complex environment to ensure the life safety. In addition to improve the fundamental thermomechanical properties of polymer matrix, the structure of protective materials also needs to be constantly optimized. − Aerogel is a class of porous materials made of colloidal particles or polymer molecules interconnected into a 3D network structure, which possesses high porosity, low density, large specific surface area (SSA), low dielectric constant, and low thermal conductivity (TC). − Processing a high-performance polymer into an aerogel can not only overcome the disadvantage of poor mechanical property of traditional inorganic aerogels but also have advantages of good temperature resistance and flame retardancy. − Researchers have conducted studies on aerogels made from high-performance polymers such as polyimide (PI) and polyamide and demonstrated their potential for thermal insulation and flame retarding applications. , However, the vast majority of aerogels reported so far are in the form of monolith or film, which cannot meet the requirements of textiles.…”