Cage-like structured flexible hybrid fiber/SiO2 aerogel composite for noise reduction

The fiber/aerogel material prepared by the traditional method of sol-gel has a serious powder shedding phenomenon, and has serious environmental pollution and health hazards. In this study, an environmentally friendly porous sound absorption material with a cage-like structure, which used flexible ultrafine glass/quartz hybrid fibers (HFs) as the carrier and SiO2 aerogel as the pore filler, was produced using the wet manufacturing process. The addition of aerogel enhanced the internal reflection of sound waves, reduced the propagation speed, increased the acoustic energy loss and improved the sound absorption coefficient (SAC). The noise reduction coefficient (NRC) reaches 0.49 in the range of 250–6300 Hz. The obtained composite presented a low density (73.5 mg/cm3) and heat resistance up to 500 °C.