Work

A facile route for 3D aerogels from nanostructured 1D and 2D materials

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Aerogels have numerous applications due to their high surface area and low densities. However, creating aerogels from a large variety of materials has remained an outstanding challenge. Here, we report a new methodology to enable aerogel production with a wide range of materials. The method is based on the assembly of anisotropic nano-objects (one-dimensional (1D) nanotubes, nanowires, or two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets) into a cross-linking network from their colloidal suspensions at the transition from the semi-dilute to the isotropic concentrated regime. The resultant aerogels have highly porous and ultrafine three-dimensional (3D) networks consisting of 1D (Ag, Si, MnO(2), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)) and 2D materials (MoS(2), graphene, h-BN) with high surface areas, low densities, and high electrical conductivities. This method opens up a facile route for aerogel production with a wide variety of materials and tremendous opportunities for bio-scaffold, energy storage, thermoelectric, catalysis, and hydrogen storage applications.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/srep00849

Authors: Sung Mi Jung, Hyun Young Jung, Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Yung Joon Jung, Jing Kong

Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University

Language: English

Topic: Aerogels and thermal insulation

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,690

Funders: National Science Foundation, Division of Materials Research