Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 16, 2026
Aesthetically Enhanced Silica Aerogel Via Incorporation of Laser Etching and Dyes
Published on: March 12, 2021
Interfacial-Engineered Sub-Crystalline Silica Aerogels with Extreme Thermal Anisotropy for Ultrahigh-Energy Laser
Huihuang Ma1, Yikun Liu1, Jianfei Gao2
1Key Laboratory of Specially Functional Polymeric Materials and Related Technology (Ministry of Education), Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Materials Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
None:
While silica aerogels have emerged as promising thermal management materials, their practical applications under extreme conditions such as ultrahigh-energy laser irradiation or thermal shocks exceeding 2000 °C are fundamentally limited by catastrophic thermal insulation failure and mechanical instability. Herein, we report a breakthrough multiphase subcrystalline silica aerogel (MSC-SA) architecture engineered through interfacial-induced crystallization with quartz fibers. By implementing a "inter-layered insulation/in-plane conduction" design paradigm, the MSC-SAs can achieve a feature of extreme thermal anisotropy─combining unprecedented axial insulation with ultraefficient radial heat dissipation. This unique thermal management strategy enables the simultaneous achievement of record-high laser damage resistance with a threshold of 3.0 × 104 W·cm-2 and protection duration exceeding 5 min, exceptional thermal stability of an ultralow thermal expansion coefficient of 1.0 × 10-6 °C1- at 1200 °C, and remarkable mechanical robustness evidenced by interfacial shear strength of 43.7 MPa and compressive strength of 32.0 MPa at 95% strain. Our proposed MSC-SAs are ideal for thermal superinsulation materials capable of withstanding extreme environments, particularly in advanced defense applications against high-energy laser threats.
