Flexible percolation fibrous thermal insulating composite membranes for thermal management

Abstract

Flexible thermal insulating membranes are ubiquitous in thermal management. Nevertheless, difficulties arise for composite membranes to combine a resilient, robust structural framework with uniform percolation networks purposefully conceived for thermal insulation. Herein, by controlling the microstructure homogeneity, we report flexible, hydrophobic thermal insulating membranes consisting of ceramic fiber and porous silica materials. The resulting nanofibrous membrane composites exhibit a low thermal insulation of 11.4 mW m⁻¹ K⁻¹, a low density of 0.245 g cm⁻³, mechanical flexibility with a bending rigidity of 1.25 cN mm⁻¹, and hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 144°. These nanofibrous-reinforced, silica-aerogel-based nanocomposite membranes are potential candidates for advanced thermal management applications.