A jackfruit-inspired ultralight high load-bearing multifunctional microwave absorbing composite with high temperature resistance by modified E-glass fabric/oriented aerogel

Abstract

Conventional polymer matrix microwave absorbing (MA) composites often struggle to balance lightweight with high load-bearing capacity. Inspired by the bract-shell structure of jackfruit, we introduces an armored shell design on the outer layer of aligned aerogels, significantly enhancing mechanical strength while preserving their intrinsic excellent impedance matching and microwave attenuation. At the microscopic level, a heterogeneous interface structure was constructed by growth of 0D Mo₂C on 2D graphite nanosheets (GN). At the macroscopic level, an GN@Mo₂C oriented aerogel was fabricated within a modified 3D integrated hollow E-glass fabric using ice-templating. The aerogel was then backfilled with 9802 resin/hollow glass microsphere (HGM) slurry to produce the final GN@Mo₂C/E-glass composite. By controlling the supercooling process at different depths within the cold trap, the dispersion of GN@Mo₂C in the sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) framework was optimized, achieving full-band coverage in X-Ku. The synergistic effect of GN@Mo₂C interfacial stress dispersion/enhanced force conduction of vertically oriented aerogel sheets/resin-aerogel interlocking and interface modification, the flexural strength of the composite increased from 8.02 MPa to 81.75 MPa, while maintaining excellent mechanical after annealing. Additionally, the composite exhibited outstanding thermal insulation and flame retardancy. This work provides an effective strategy for the integrated MA and load bearing multifunctional composite.