Novel dome-celled aerogels maintain superelasticity despite temperature extremes

Using a novel dome-shaped structural design, researchers present a chemically diverse collection of aerogels that remain elastic and mechanically intact under extreme temperatures. The findings open the door for the fabrication of new aerogel materials suited to extreme environments required for applications in space, aerospace, energy, and high-temperature industries. Aerogels are an advanced class of materials characterized by their extremely low density and high porosity, which makes them ideal for a wide range of applications. However, despite improvements in design and fabrication, aerogels still face challenges in maintaining thermomechanical stability under extreme thermal and mechanical conditions. To address these limitations, Kai Pang and colleagues developed a versatile 2D channel–confined chemistry technique for fabricating a broad spectrum of ultralight aerogels across a wide array of materials, including oxides, carbides, and metals. At the core of the design is the dome-shaped cell – inspired by biological and architectural forms – which enhances mechanical resilience. The dome geometry enables superior load-bearing capacity and elasticity. Pang et al. synthesized a diverse collection of 194 dome-celled aerogels with compositions incorporating more than 30 different elements. According to the authors, regardless of their chemical species or elemental compositions, all dome-celled aerogels exhibited exceptional elasticity – even at densities lower than air – and could retain their structural integrity after more than 20,000 compression cycles at 99% strain. Moreover, this mechanical resilience and extremely low thermal conductivity persisted across a wide temperature range, from cryogenic (~4.2 Kelvin) to ultrahigh temperatures (2273 Kelvin). To demonstrate the material’s thermal superinsulation, Pang et al. show that an 8-mm-thick carbide aerogel could shield a fresh rose from a 1573 Kelvin butane flame for five minutes without damage.