Recently, the Nano Porous Materials Research Group of the School of Physical Science and Engineering of Tongji University has obtained a new type of Silica Nanotube Aerogel (SNTA) by imitating the membrane pore structure of polar bear hair, using chemical vapor deposition and calcining process material. This material has excellent thermal insulation properties and far-infrared blocking capabilities, which can provide the ideal greenhouse effect; its mechanical properties are excellent, and it can even be processed into a sleeve with a wall thickness of only 500 microns. What's more interesting is that its slender nano-tube structure enhances Rayleigh scattering, making its visible light and near-infrared transmittance high and ultraviolet transmittance very low. It can take into account efficient lighting, heat collection and ultraviolet protection, which is extremely suitable for Latitude or space applications. In comparison, the structure size of polar bear hair is much larger, and its optical performance is exactly the opposite of SNTA. It reflects visible light and near-infrared rays through ultraviolet rays, which is not conducive to human use.
This work was actually an accidental harvest when the research group researched the infrared blocking of high-temperature aerobic environment. Eventually, it was published in the internationally renowned journal "Chemistry of Materials" under the title "Multifunctional Silica Nanotube Aerogels Inspired by Polar Bear Hair for Light Management and Thermal Insulation". In the above, a new scheme for the structure and performance design of new aerogel materials is proposed, which is of great significance to the fields of ultralight materials, thermal insulation, aerospace and civil.
The corresponding author and co-first author of the paper is Du Ai, associate professor of the School of Physical Science and Engineering of Tongji University. He proposed ideas and designed the experiments. A doctoral student, Xueling Wu, accompanied the photo with this report. Teachers such as Zhou Bin, Zhang Zhihua, and Shen Jun also participated in the work, which took more than a year to complete. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, a key project of the National Key Research and Development Program "Nanotechnology" and an open project of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology.