Anisotropically Thermal‐Protective Porous Ceramics Enabled by Nacre‐Like Framework

Abstract Ever more severe energy dilemma and unfulfilled demands for thermal protection applications have drawn a great interest in developing thermal protective materials. Though great progress is achieved by implementing several advanced micro‐architectures, the conflict between thermal insulation and mechanical properties, along with the complex manufacturing process, remains the main obstacles for fabricating ideal integrated thermal insulation materials. Here, a scalable nacre‐like porous ceramic is reported with a good combination of thermal insulation and mechanical strength (≈0.058 W m −1 K −1 , 22 MPa) via a bottom‐up film‐to‐bulk assembly. The well‐aligned microplatelets constructed the nacre‐like framework and produced porosity in between for thermal insulation while the mineral bridges between microplatelets connected and strengthened the whole framework. Besides, the structure‐induced anisotropy of thermal conductivity on out‐plane and in‐plane directions provides the possibilities for heat management. Moreover, this material shows an excellent fire‐resistance and maintained performance after fire. These structure‐induced integrated superiorities made this material good candidate for complex thermal protection applications.