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With the development of aerospace technology, the Mach number of aircraft continues to increase, which puts forward higher performance requirements for high-temperature wave-transparent materials. Silicon nitrides have excellent mechanical properties, high-temperature stability, and oxidation resistance, but their brittleness and high dielectric constant impede their practical applications. Herein, by employing a template-assisted precursor pyrolysis method, we prepared a class of Si3N4@SiO2 nanowire aerogels (Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs) that are assembled by Si3N4@SiO2 nanowires with diameters ranging from 386 to 631 nm. Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs have low density of 12–31 mg∙cm−3, specific surface area of 4.13 m2∙g−1, and average pore size of 68.9 μm. Mechanical properties characterization shows that the aerogels exhibit reversible compressibility from 60% compressive strain and good fatigue resistance even when being compressed 100 times at set strain of 20%. The aerogels also show good thermal insulation performance (0.032 W·m−1∙K−1 at room temperature), ablation resistance (butane blow torch), and high-temperature stability (maximum service temperature in air over 1200 ℃). The dielectric constant and loss of the aerogels are 1.02–1.06 and 4.3×10−5–1.4×10−3 at room temperature, respectively. The combination of good mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties makes Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs promising ultralight wave-transparent and thermally insulating materials for applications at high temperatures.


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Resilient Si3N4@SiO2 nanowire aerogels for high-temperature electromagnetic wave transparency and thermal insulation

Show Author's information Wei ZhangaLei Sua( )De LuaKang PengaMin NiuaLei ZhuangaJian FengbHongjie Wanga( )
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Science and Technology on Advanced Ceramic Fibers and Composites Laboratory, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

Abstract

With the development of aerospace technology, the Mach number of aircraft continues to increase, which puts forward higher performance requirements for high-temperature wave-transparent materials. Silicon nitrides have excellent mechanical properties, high-temperature stability, and oxidation resistance, but their brittleness and high dielectric constant impede their practical applications. Herein, by employing a template-assisted precursor pyrolysis method, we prepared a class of Si3N4@SiO2 nanowire aerogels (Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs) that are assembled by Si3N4@SiO2 nanowires with diameters ranging from 386 to 631 nm. Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs have low density of 12–31 mg∙cm−3, specific surface area of 4.13 m2∙g−1, and average pore size of 68.9 μm. Mechanical properties characterization shows that the aerogels exhibit reversible compressibility from 60% compressive strain and good fatigue resistance even when being compressed 100 times at set strain of 20%. The aerogels also show good thermal insulation performance (0.032 W·m−1∙K−1 at room temperature), ablation resistance (butane blow torch), and high-temperature stability (maximum service temperature in air over 1200 ℃). The dielectric constant and loss of the aerogels are 1.02–1.06 and 4.3×10−5–1.4×10−3 at room temperature, respectively. The combination of good mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties makes Si3N4@SiO2 NWAGs promising ultralight wave-transparent and thermally insulating materials for applications at high temperatures.

Keywords: high-temperature resistance, high-temperature stability, electromagnetic wave transparency, resilient ceramic aerogels, fire resistance

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Publication history

Received: 24 July 2023
Revised: 12 September 2023
Accepted: 01 October 2023
Published: 27 November 2023
Issue date: November 2023

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© The Author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the foundation support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 92263204, 52072294, and 52102076). Lei Su also thanks the financial support from Top Young Talent Program of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

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