Temperature-Responsive Intumescent Chemistry toward Fire Resistance and Super Thermal Insulation under Extremely Harsh Conditions

Organic aerogels with high strength are attractive for thermal insulators but are seriously hampered under fire/high-temperature harsh conditions. In this study, we report a smart temperature-responsive self-intumescent strategy for organic aerogels driven by in situ carbonization and self-foaming chemistry. The resultant smart temperature-responsive aerogel is not active at low temperatures but can intumesce rapidly to form stable porous carbon at higher temperatures (>300 °C) to achieve excellent fire resistance and high-temperature thermal insulation. Especially, the aerogel can smartly real-time expand with different contents in response to temperature/fire to form different porous carbon layers, thus resisting the attack of various heat conditions and exhibiting the best high-temperature insulating performance ever reported. The corresponding mechanism has been revealed in detail. This aerogel also exhibits the combined advantages of a high compressive modulus of 45 MPa, negligible heat and smoke release during fire, and low thermal conductivity. This novel strategy provides new insights for the development of advanced extreme-condition insulating organic insulators.