Superelastic and Superhydrophobic Nanofiber-Assembled Cellular Aerogels for Effective Separation of Oil/Water Emulsions

Many applications proposed for functional nanofibers require their assembly into a monolithic cellular structure. The ability to maintain structural integrity upon large deformation is essential to ensure a macroscopic cellular material that functions reliably. However, it remains a great challenge to achieve high elasticity in three-dimensional (3D) nanofibrous networks. Here, we report a strategy to create fibrous, isotropically bonded elastic reconstructed (FIBER) aerogels with a hierarchical cellular structure and superelasticity by combining electrospun nanofibers and the freeze-shaping technique. Our approach allows the intrinsically lamellar deposited electrospun nanofibers to assemble into elastic bulk…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 51322304, U1232116
• MO
  Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China