Bioinspired Superlight Carbon Nanotube Aerogel With Exceptionally High Kinetic Energy Absorption up to 385.47 MJ/m³

High-performance kinetic energy absorption and electromagnetic shielding materials are critical for key technological applications in aerospace, electronic communications, and transportation systems. However, it's still a great challenge to increase kinetic energy absorption while maintaining an ultra-low density. Herein, a silver-functionalized carbon nanotube aerogel (ACNTA) is designed by simulating the internal structure of bamboo through the segmented deposition of carbon nanotube aerogel (CNTA) with silver, where the macro-porous CNTA backbone introducies intrinsic low density and large deformation, and the adhesion of Ag increases the skid resistance and conductivity between carbon nanotube fibers. Consequently, a superlight ACNTA with an extremely low density of 9.3 mg cm^-3 is obtained, exhibiting a remarkable kinetic energy absorption of 385.47 MJ m^-3 at a strain rate of 8500 s^-1. Additionally, the electromagnetic shielding performance of ACNTA reached 99.65 dB, an increase of 22% compared to the native CNTA. Moreover, the aerogel designed with a bionic bamboo structure also has certain thermal insulation, sound absorption, and noise reduction performance. The biomimetic-designed structure provides the potential for superlight materials with multifunctional properties for outer protective materials for electronic and equipment.