Multiscale Pore-Structured Aerogel Fiber Metafabric for High-Performance Noise Reduction and Thermal Insulation

Abstract

The accelerated progress of modern transportation and urbanization has resulted in severe environmental noise pollution, imposing an adverse impact on economic productivity and public health. Concurrently, the synergistic challenges of waste heat accumulation and extreme low-temperature conditions present critical threats to equipment reliability. Hence, a unique strategy, based on dual air-gelation, is developed to synthesize an aerogel-structured fiber metafabric for noise reduction and thermal insulation directly. By modulating the interactions among polymers, solvents, and water, the interaction of charged jets can be facilitated, which in turn promotes rapid phase separation and the formation of a fibrous 3D network composed of aerogel fibers with internal nanopores (size 30–80 nm). Owing to the presence of micro/nano multiscale pore structure, aerogel fiber metafabric exhibits lightweight (6 mg cm^–3) and elastic characteristics while also demonstrating excellent thermal insulation performance (28.58 mW m^–1 K^–1) and sound absorption property (noise reduction coefficient of 0.57). Furthermore, the incorporation of hydrophobic agents and cross-linking agents endows superior mechanical property to the aerogel fiber metafabric (nearly 0% plastic deformation after 400 compression cycles) and hydrophobicity (water contact angle ∼134.3°). This work provides rich possibilities for the development of materials with both noise reduction and thermal insulation properties.