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Robust, lightweight gelatin composite aerogel with outstanding thermal insulation

  • Composites & nanocomposites
  • Published:
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Abstract

Thermal insulation materials with high mechanical strength and low thermal conductivity play an important role in the construction industry. In this study, a compound aerogel with stable performance, high strength, low density and good thermal insulation performance was successfully prepared by using gelatin as the base and layered bimetallic hydroxide (LDH) as the reinforcing phase. 3-aminopropyl triethoxylsilane was used to modify the surface of layered bimetallic hydroxide to enhance interfacial bonding. The results show that the gelatin/layered bimetallic hydroxide composite aerogel has high porosity (> 96%) and low thermal conductivity (0.034–0.037 W/(m K)), volume density as low as 0.035 g/cm3. The maximum compression strength and compression modulus are 1.05 Mpa and 9.82 Mpa, respectively. The improvement of the mechanical strength of the composite aerogel may be attributed to the two-dimensional layered nanosheets of LDH to construct the internal micro/nano structure of the composite aerogel. Outstanding mechanical and low thermal conductivity enable its application in high-performance thermal insulation materials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Key Research & Development Program of Hunan Province of China (No. 2022GK2040).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Hanxin Li, Fuxing Zhao, Tangping Peng, Chongwen Jiang, Hao Liu & Yu He

  2. Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Efficient and Clean Utilization of Manganese Resources, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Chongwen Jiang

  3. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Dewen He

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  1. Hanxin Li
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  2. Fuxing Zhao
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Correspondence to Chongwen Jiang or Dewen He.

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Li, H., Zhao, F., Peng, T. et al. Robust, lightweight gelatin composite aerogel with outstanding thermal insulation. J Mater Sci 57, 14835–14847 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07508-x

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