Highly insulating polymeric aerogels derived from hollow material-filled gel emulsion

Developing aerogel materials that combine high-thermal-insulation properties with excellent mechanical robustness is of great interest for real applications in various conditions with diverse temperature and humidity ranges. However, many aerogel materials currently available exhibit limited thermal insulation capabilities, thereby hindering the development of materials with specific functions. Therefore, it is crucial to construct bulk materials with outstanding thermal insulation performance over a wide temperature range. In this work, we designed and synthesized hollow glass microsphere cross-linked polymeric aerogels by using a water-modulated additive-loading soft-template strategy. The resulting composite aerogels possess three-dimensional hierarchically interconnected networks with high porosity (95.0%) and low density (40 mg cm⁻³). These aerogels exhibit excellent mechanical properties, with a compression strength of 0.40 MPa, as well as exceptional thermal conductivity of 23.0 mW m⁻¹ K⁻¹ lower than the commonly accepted super-insulating criterion. Remarkably, these aerogels maintain a thermal conductivity below 32.0 mW m⁻¹ K⁻¹ even at a temperature as high as 210 °C. Therefore, the mechanically strong and super-insulating polymeric aerogels, synthesized through a low-cost, environmentally friendly and scalable technology, hold significant promise as practical thermal insulation materials for a wide range of applications.