Unusual flexibility of transparent poly(methylsilsesquioxane) aerogels by surfactant-induced mesoscopic fiber-like assembly

Ryota Ueoka, Yosuke Hara, Ayaka Maeno, Hironori Kaji, Kazuki Nakanishi and Kazuyoshi Kanamori ()
Additional contact information
Ryota Ueoka: Kyoto University
Yosuke Hara: Kyoto University
Ayaka Maeno: Kyoto University
Hironori Kaji: Kyoto University
Kazuki Nakanishi: Nagoya University
Kazuyoshi Kanamori: Kyoto University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract High-performance thermal insulators represented by aerogels are regarded as one of the most promising materials for energy savings. However, significantly low mechanical strength has been a barrier for aerogels to be utilized in various social domains such as houses, buildings, and industrial plants. Here, we report a synthetic strategy to realize highly transparent aerogels with unusually high bending flexibility based on poly(methylsilsesquioxane) (PMSQ) network. We have constructed mesoscopic fine fiber-like structures of various sizes in PMSQ gels by the combination of phase separation suppression by tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) and mesoscopic fiber-like assembly by nonionic poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO) type surfactant. The optimized mesoscale structures of PMSQ gels have realized highly transparent and resilient monolithic aerogels with much high bendability compared to those reported in previous works. This work will provide a way to highly insulating materials with glasslike transparency and high mechanical flexibility.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-44713-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-44713-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44713-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().