Ultralight, Thermally Insulating, Compressible Polyimide Fiber Assembled Sponges. 2017

Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
Macromolecular Chemistry, Bavarian Polymer Institute, University of Bayreuth , Universitätsstraße 30, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany.

Tunable density, thermally and mechanically stable, elastic, and thermally insulating sponges are required for demanding applications. Hierarchically structured sponges with bimodal interconnected pores, porosity more than 99%, and tunable densities (between 7.6 and 10.1 mg/cm3) are reported using polyimide (PI) as high temperature stable polymer. The sponges are made by freeze-drying a dispersion of short PI fibers and precursor polymer, poly(amic acid) (PAA). The concept of "self-gluing" the fibrous network skeleton of PI during sponge formation was applied to achieve mechanical stability without sacrificing the thermal properties. The sponges showed initial degradation above 400 and 500 °C in air and nitrogen, respectively. They have low thermal conductivity of 0.026 W/mK and thermal diffusivity of 1.009 mm2/s for a density of 10.1 mg/cm3. The sponges are compressible for at least 10 000 cycles and good thermal insulators even at high compressions. These fibrous PI sponges are promising candidates for potential applications in thermal insulation, lightweight construction, high-temperature filtration, sensors, and catalyst carrier for high-temperature reactions.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
June 2020, Materials (Basel, Switzerland),
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
December 2020, ACS applied materials & interfaces,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
July 2022, Polymers,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
January 2020, Polymers,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
April 2013, Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.),
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
May 2022, ACS applied materials & interfaces,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
August 2017, Nanoscale,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
August 2017, Soft matter,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
December 2022, Journal of colloid and interface science,
Shaohua Jiang, and Bianca Uch, and Seema Agarwal, and Andreas Greiner
July 2021, Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.),
Copied contents to your clipboard!