Fiber Reinforced Polyimide Aerogel Composites with High Mechanical Strength for High Temperature Insulation

Abstract Glass fiber/polyimide aerogel composites are prepared by adding glass fiber mat to a polyimide sol derived from diamine, 4,4′‐oxydianiline, p‐phenylene diamine, and dianhydride, 3,3′,4,4′‐biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride. The fiber felt acts as a skeleton for support and shaping, reduces aerogel shrinkage during the preparation process, and improves the mechanical strength and thermal stability of the composite materials. These composites possess a mesoporous structure with densities as low as 0.143–0.177 g cm −3 , with the glass fiber functioning to improve the overall mechanical properties of the polyimide aerogel, which results in its Young's modulus increasing from 42.7 to 113.5 MPa. These composites are found to retain their structure after heating at 500 °C, in contrast to pure aerogels which decompose into shrunken ball‐like structures. These composites maintain their thermal stability in air and N 2 atmospheres, exhibiting a low thermal conductivity range of 0.023 to 0.029 W m −1 K −1 at room temperature and 0.057to 0.082 W m −1 K −1 at 500 °C. The high mechanical strengths, excellent thermal stabilities, and low thermal conductivities of these aerogel composites should ensure that they are potentially useful materials for insulation applications at high temperature.