Abstract
Cellulose and its derivative aerogels have attracted much attention due to their renewable and biodegradable properties. However, the significant shrinkage in the supercritical drying process causes the relatively high thermal conductivity and low mechanical property of cellulose and its derivatives aerogels. Considering the pearl-necklace-like skeleton network of silica aerogels, which can improve thermal insulation property and mechanical property. Herein, we propose a new strategy for fabricating cellulose diacetate aerogels (CDAAs) with pearl-necklace-like skeletons by using tert-butanol (TBA) as exchange solvent after experiencing the freezing-drying course. CDAAs obtained have the low density of 0.09 g cm−3, the nanopore size in the range of 10–40 nm, the low thermal conductivity of 0.024 W m−1 K−1 at ambient conditions, and the excellent mechanical properties (0.18 MPa at 3% strain, 0.38 MPa at 5% strain). Ultimately, CDAAs with moderate mechanical property paralleled to cellulose-derived aerogels obtained from supercritical drying process are produced, only simultaneously owning the radial shrinkage of 6.2%. The facile method for fabricating CDAAs could provide a new reference for constructing cellulose/cellulose-derived aerogels and other biomass aerogels.
Highlights
Aerogel is a solid material with a nanoscale skeleton and nonporous network structures, such as silica aerogels [1], chitosan aerogels [2], polybenzoxazine aerogels [3], etc
Aerogel has the unique characteristics of low density [4], high specific surface area [5], high porosity [6,7], low thermal conductivity [8], excellent absorptive activity [9,10], etc
Cellulose and its derivatives attract much attention based on biodegradability, renewability, environment friendliness, and a wide range of sources
Summary
Aerogel is a solid material with a nanoscale skeleton and nonporous network structures, such as silica aerogels [1], chitosan aerogels [2], polybenzoxazine aerogels [3], etc. Aerogel has the unique characteristics of low density [4], high specific surface area [5], high porosity [6,7], low thermal conductivity [8], excellent absorptive activity [9,10], etc. Owing to the versatile characteristics, aerogel has been widely studied and successfully applied in thermal insulation [11,12], catalyst carrier [13,14], air purification, and water treatment [15,16]. Synthetic processes and large-scale production of aerogel materials and the increasing consumption of non-renewable resources negatively impact the environment [17].
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