Strong yet superelastic ceramic aerogel enabled by synergistic soft-hard inter-nanowire nodes.

ABSTRACT: Elastic ceramic aerogels have drawn broad attention for use in aerospace, energy storage, and thermal protection systems, where lightweight structures with thermal stability and mechanical robustness are required. Yet their practical application is often limited by insufficient strength. Achieving both high strength and high elasticity in ceramic nanowire aerogels remains challenging because these properties are typically mutually constrained. Here we design silicon carbide nanowire aerogels reinforced by dual-phase nodes composed of pyrolytic carbon (PyC) and amorphous silica (SiO₂) to resolve this conflict. Experimental measurements together with large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator (LAMMPS) and finite element simulations show that amorphous SiO₂

SUBMITTER: Lu 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12749129 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature