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Flexible and lightweight thermal insulation materials with hierarchical microstructures are ubiquitous in thermal management and protection systems. Ceramic aerogels promise high-temperature thermal insulation but lack mechanical robustness, while the fibrous materials with excellent mechanical elasticity display modest thermal insulation. Here we describe flexible hierarchical superhydrophobic ceramic insulation nanocomposites through the densified architectured hierarchical nanostructures, radiative insulation coating, and interfacial cross-linking among composites. The lightweight flexible ceramic nanocomposites exhibit a density of 0.13 g/cm3, high-temperature fire resistance with thermal conductivity of 0.024 W/(m·K), and super-hydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 152°. The mechanical robustness and high-temperature thermal insulation of ceramic nanocomposites, together with its soundproof performance, shed light on the low-cost flexible insulation materials manufacturing with scalability for high-temperature thermal insulation applications under high mechanical loading conditions.

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 December 2021
Revised: 27 January 2022
Accepted: 07 February 2022
Published: 24 March 2022
Issue date: July 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Building Technology Office (BTO) Award (No. DE-EE0008675).

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