Ice-template freeze-casting synthesis of polysilsesquioxane aerogel long fibers for broadband sound absorption

Abstract

Aerogel fibers inherit the merits of aerogel and fibrous materials, such as ultralow density, large specific surface area and high flexibility, demonstrating great potential as the next generation functional fibers. Herein, an ice-template freeze-casting strategy is developed to prepare polysilsesquioxane aerogel long fibers (PALFs) similar to natural fibers in structure. During the freeze-casting, the strong mutual interaction between solid and liquid phases in the hydrogel induces uniform nucleation and continuous growth of ice crystals in confined spaces. The three-dimensional monolithic hydrogel is gradually deconstructed into one-dimensional fibrous geometries by the growing columnar ice crystals. The obtained PALFs exhibit the polygonal cross-section with a uniform mesoporous structure. After simple physical assembly, the monolithic PALFs exhibit good thermal insulation performance (as low as 25.0 mW/(m·K) at 25 °C) and high-efficiency absorption of broadband sound waves (with a noise reduction coefficient up to 0.58).