Constructing lightweight ternary interpenetrating network of carbon fabric/siloxane/phenolic aerogels for long-time high-temperature thermal protection

Abstract

Lightweight ablative material has served the critical role of protecting space vehicles upon hypersonic entry. However, low oxidation resistance hinders its long-time high-efficiency service in a high-temperature oxidizing atmosphere. Herein, we prepared a lightweight ternary interpenetrating network of three-dimensional carbon fabric, siloxane aerogel, and phenolic aerogel, which are structurally interpenetrating in macro-, micron-to nanoscale and chemically crosslinking at the molecular scale, resulting in a unique combination of low-density (∼0.3 g/cm3), good thermal stability and oxidation resistance, outstanding mechanical properties, and ultralow thermal conductivity. More intriguingly, long-time thermal protection performance (zero surface recession and temperature below 60 °C at 38 mm in-depth after being exposed to 1300 °C for 20 min). The findings of this work provide not only a great potential candidate material for long-time thermal protection in aviation and aerospace applications but also a simple but efficient approach to fabricating multifunctional binary, ternary, and even multiple interpenetrating networks.