According to the report, the research team led by academician YU Shuhong from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and research group led by professor LIANG Haiwei worked together and have converted the heat of structural biomaterials into graphite carbon nanofiber aerogel, which perfectly inherited the hierarchical structure of bacterial cellulose from macro to micro. It has remarkable thermal and mechanical properties, and has achieved large-scale synthesis.
Light compressible material with super elasticity and fatigue resistance is an ideal material for the fields of aerospace, mechanical buffering, energy damping and soft robotics. The team developed a method to chemically regulate the pyrolysis of bacterial cellulose using inorganic salts, and achieved a new carbonization process of large-scale synthesis and morphological retention. The carbon nanofiber aerogel has inherited the structure of the bacterial cellulose from macro to micro, and has shown the remarkable properties of superelasticity and fatigue resistance in a wide temperature range. As carbon nanofiber aerogels have excellent thermal stability mechanical properties and can be prepared in macro quantities, they will have important application in many fields, especially suitable for mechanical buffering, pressure sensing, energy damping and aerospace solar cells under extreme conditions.