Ultralight nanofibre-assembled cellular aerogels with superelasticity and multifunctionality

Yang Si, Jianyong Yu, Xiaomin Tang, Jianlong Ge and Bin Ding ()
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Yang Si: State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University
Jianyong Yu: Key Laboratory of Textile Science & Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University
Xiaomin Tang: Key Laboratory of Textile Science & Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University
Jianlong Ge: Key Laboratory of Textile Science & Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Textiles, Donghua University
Bin Ding: State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Three-dimensional nanofibrous aerogels (NFAs) that are both highly compressible and resilient would have broad technological implications for areas ranging from electrical devices and bioengineering to damping materials; however, creating such NFAs has proven extremely challenging. Here we report a novel strategy to create fibrous, isotropically bonded elastic reconstructed (FIBER) NFAs with a hierarchical cellular structure and superelasticity by combining electrospun nanofibres and the fibrous freeze-shaping technique. Our approach causes the intrinsically lamellar deposited electrospun nanofibres to assemble into elastic bulk aerogels with tunable densities and desirable shapes on a large scale. The resulting FIBER NFAs exhibit densities of >0.12 mg cm−3, rapid recovery from deformation, efficient energy absorption and multifunctionality in terms of the combination of thermal insulation, sound absorption, emulsion separation and elasticity-responsive electric conduction. The successful synthesis of such fascinating materials may provide new insights into the design and development of multifunctional NFAs for various applications.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6802

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