New Protective Material – Can Withstand Up To 500°C

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Protective materials are used in every field, beginning from the architecture and construction of high-rise buildings to infrared stealth devices for military applications. However, such current materials often lose their protective functions under harsh conditions such as extreme temperatures, rendering them ineffective. Other protective materials lose their elasticity, leading to similar performance issues.

 So, scientists turned to aerogel – a solid with extremely low density with incredible isolation capabilities. Now, new aerogel materials that can maintain their functionality and super elasticity under extreme temperatures have been developed by a team of researchers from Sichuan University, China. 

“We aimed to solve the problem that the performance of conventional protective aerogel materials deteriorates severely under harsh working conditions,” said research author Hai-Bo Zhao, professor in the College of Chemistry at Sichuan University. According to phy.org, by focusing on the microstructure design, Zhao’s team was able to develop a polymer aerogel with super elasticity that functioned in a temperature range of -196 to 500°C with a process that was scalable and practical.

“The reported aerogel materials maintain super elasticity, high electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness, thermal insulation and infrared stealth in a wide temperature range and after cyclic compression for hundreds of times,” Zhao said. “The most exciting aspect is the economic and simple preparation process, which laid the foundation of the potential practical application of the material.”

Zhao said that the next step is to make the aerogels available for use in commercial, military and other contexts.