Hard Carbon Aerogels: Superelastic Hard Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels (Adv. Mater. 23/2019)

A family of hard carbon aerogels with nanofibrous network structure is fabricated by using various one-dimensional nanofibers as templates as described by Shu-Hong Yu and co-workers in article number 1900651. These aerogels display robust and stable mechanical performances, including high strength, extremely fast recovery speed (860 mm s−1), and ultralow energy-loss coefficient (<0.16). Moreover, after being compressed for 104 cycles at 50% strain, they show only 2% plastic deformation and retain 93% of the original stress.