A ‘ceramer’ aerogel with unique bicontinuous inorganic–organic structure enabling super-resilience, hydrophobicity, and thermal insulation

Ultra-lightweight, resilient but robust thermal insulating materials are expected to work in harsh environments, which is of increasing demand. In this work, the comprehensive performances are initially achieved in a unique ‘ceramer’ aerogel through combining excellent properties of ceramic silica (e.g. lightweight and flame-retardance) and of polymer polyimide (e.g. high strength/modulus and hydrophobicity) but avoiding brittleness and poor processability of the ceramic and low heat resistance of the polymer. The aerogel with honeycomb-like skeleton of silica nanofibers interpenetrated by polyimide forming a bicontinuous network is constructed via a viable approach. The ceramer aerogel not only maintains high and fast recoverability even after 103 compression cycles with 60% strain but also exhibits excellent fatigue resistance (105 cycles) over a wide temperature range (up to 400 °C). Moreover, the aerogel possesses strong intrinsic hydrophobicity, flame retardancy and ultralow thermal conductivity. This work provides an innovative methodology for designing thermal-insulating aerogels with excellent comprehensive properties and capability for mass production.