Highly Compressive Boron Nitride Nanotube Aerogels Reinforced with Reduced Graphene Oxide.

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), structural analogues of carbon nanotubes, have attracted significant attention due to their superb thermal conductivity, wide bandgap, excellent hydrogen storage capacity, thermal and chemical stability. Despite progress in preparation and surface functionalization of BNNTs, it remains a challenge to assemble one-dimensional BNNTs into three-dimensional architectures (such as aerogels) for practical applications. Here, we report a highly compressive BNNT aerogel reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) fabricated using freeze drying method. The rGO reinforcement effect and three-dimensional honeycomb-like framework offer the BNNTs/rGO aerogel with high compression resilience. The BNNTs/rGO aerogels were then infiltrated with polyethylene glycol to prepare a kind of phase change materials, which show zero leakage even at 100 °C and enhanced thermal conductivity, due to the three-dimensional porous structure of the BNNTs/rGO aerogel. This work provides a simple method for the preparation of three-dimensional BNNTs/rGO aerogels for many potential applications, such as high-performance polymer composites.