Thermal protection under extreme conditions requires materials with excellent thermal insulation properties and exceptional mechanical properties to withstand a variety of complex external stresses. Mesoporous silica aerogels are the most widely used insulation materials due to their ultralow thermal conductivity. However, they still suffer from mechanical fragility and structural instability in practical applications. Herein, a nacre-mimetic nanocomposite aerogel, synthesized via in situ growth of inorganic minerals in a lamellar cellulose nanofibrous network, is reported. The multiscale structural adaptation of the inorganic-organic components endows nanocomposite aerogels with rapid configuration recovery during ambient pressure drying. The resulting aerogels show ultralow thermal conductivities (17.4 mW m-1 K-1 at 1.0 atm). These aerogels also integrate challenging mechanical properties, including high compressive stiffness to resist deformation under the pressure of an adult, superelasticity to prevent static and dynamic stress cracking even under the crushing of a vehicle (1.6 t), and high bending flexibility to adapt to any surface. Moreover, they exhibit excellent structural stability under fatigue stress/strain cycles over a wide temperature range (-196 to 200 °C). The combination of high thermal insulation performance and excellent mechanical properties offers a potential material system for robust thermal superinsulation under extreme conditions, especially for aerospace applications.
Keywords: biomimetic aerogels; flexibility; stiffness; superelasticity; thermal superinsulation.
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