Chemically bonded multi-nanolayer inorganic aerogel with a record-low thermal conductivity in a vacuum

ABSTRACT Inorganic aerogels have exhibited many superior characteristics with extensive applications, but are still plagued by a nearly century-old tradeoff between their mechanical and thermal properties. When reducing thermal conductivity by ultralow density, inorganic aerogels generally suffer from large fragility due to their brittle nature or weak joint crosslinking, while enhancing the mechanical robustness by material design and structural engineering, they easily sacrifice thermal insulation and stability. Here, we report a chemically bonded multi-nanolayer design and synthesis of a graphene/amorphous boron nitride aerogel to address this typical tradeoff to further enhance mechanical and thermal properties. Attributed to the chemically bonded interface and coupled toughening effect, our aerogels display a low density of 0.8 mg cm−3 with ultrahigh flexibility (elastic compressive strain up to 99% and bending strain up to 90%), and exceptional thermostability (strength degradation <3% after sharp thermal shocks), as well as the lowest thermal conductivities in a vacuum (only 1.57 mW m−1 K−1 at room temperature and 10.39 mW m−1 K−1 at 500°C) among solid materials to date. This unique combination of mechanical and thermal properties offers an attractive material system for thermal superinsulation at extreme conditions.