2. Academic Validation
  3. Bismaleimide bridged silsesquioxane aerogels with excellent heat resistance: effect of sol-gel solvent polarity

Bismaleimide bridged silsesquioxane aerogels with excellent heat resistance: effect of sol-gel solvent polarity

  • Soft Matter. 2020 Apr 8;16(14):3548-3554. doi: 10.1039/d0sm00029a.
Juan Zhao 1,  Guanjie Zeng 2,  Fangxin Zou 3,  Shaohua Jiang 1,  Yeqing Chen 4,  Haiping Wang 1,  Chenzhong Mu 5,  Xiu-Zhi Tang 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Wuyi University, 529020, Guangdong, China.
  • 2 School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 410083, Changsha, China.
  • 3 Center for Materials Forming-CEMEF, MINES Paris Tech, PSL Research University, UMR CNRS 76351, 06904 Sophia Antipolis, France.
  • 4 School of Material Science and Technology, Wuyi University, 529020, Guangdong, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Special Functional Waterproof Materials, Beijing Oriental Yuhong Waterproof Technology Co., Ltd, 100123, Beijing, China. muchenzhong@hotmail.com.
  • 6 School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Hunan Key Laboratory of Advanced Fibers and Composites, Central South University, 410083, Changsha, China. xztang@csu.edu.cn.
PMID: 32219248 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm00029a
Abstract

Due to the poor heat-resistance and intrinsic weakness of the bridging moieties in aerogel matrixes, it remains greatly challenging to fabricate highly thermostable and toughened silsesquioxane aerogels. By utilizing bismaleimide as the bridging part and optimizing the solvent polarity, lightweight (ρ < 0.09 g cm-3), compressible (80% strain) and superhydrophobic (CA ≈ 150°) bismaleimide bridged silsesquioxane aerogels (BMIT-BSAs) are constructed. The microstructure and compressive modulus of BMIT-BSAs can be tuned by the sol-gel Solvents with different polarities. Moreover, stable low-temperature wettability at -196 °C and a significantly increased initial deposition temperature of 336 °C for both N2 and O2 atmospheres were measured, demonstrating the wide temperature tolerance of BMIT-BSAs.

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