Mechanically Strong and Thermally Insulating Polyimide Aerogel Fibers Reinforced by Prefabricated Long Polyimide Fibers

Aerogel fibers inherit the merits of aerogel and fibrous materials, such as high porosity and satisfactory knittability, demonstrating great potential as thermal protective materials applied in harsh environments. Nevertheless, the inferior mechanical property resulting from the porous structure immensely hampers the practical application of aerogel fibers. Herein, we develop robust and thermally insulating long polyimide fiber-reinforced polyimide composite aerogel fibers (LPF-PAFs). The porous crosslinked polyimide aerogel as the sheath endows LPF-PAFs with good thermal insulation performance, while the long polyimide fibers as the core provide LPF-PAFs with superior mechanical strength. Due to the introduction of the high-strength long polyimide fibers to undertake significant stress, LPF-PAFs display outstanding strength surpassing 150 MPa without obvious mechanical performance degeneration in a wide range of temperatures from -100 to 300 °C. Moreover, the textile woven by LPF-PAFs exhibits a superior thermal insulation ability and stability to cotton textile at 200 and -100 °C, indicating its potential application in thermal protective clothing under extreme environments.