Half-Full Filled Aerogels with a 348% Increment in Energy Absorption and a Retained High Electromagnetic Shielding Performance

Aerogels, as kinetic energy absorbing materials, can find crucial applications for safeguarding in transportation, sports, buildings, construction, and aerospace. However, the highly porous structure makes it extremely fragile for endurance usage. In this study, a half-full filled structure has been proposed, and the concept has been demonstrated based on shear thickening fluid (STF) and chemically vapor deposited carbon nanotube aerogels (CNTAs), in which the outer part of CNTA is filled with STF while the inner core keeping unfilled. Chemical vapor deposition significantly enhances the elasticity and electromagnetic shielding performance of the native CNTA. The half-full filled aerogels (HFFA) show a 348% increase in energy absorption compared to the CNTA. At the same time, the density, electronic conductivity, and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of the HFFAs are 0.117 g cm-3, 1213 S m-1, and 69.52 dB (which is a neglectable reduction of 0.63% compared to native CNTA), respectively. The HFFA strategy provides an alternative route to fabricate robust aerogels with a remarkable increase of target properties while maintaining other properties, such as low density, high pore volume, and conductivity, with limited changes. A half-full filled (HFF) aerogel with a 348% increment in energy absorption has been designed and demonstrated based on carbon nanotube aerogel and shear thickening fluid. The HFF structure brings a remarkable increase in mechanical strength while keeping a low density and retaining the high electromagnetic shielding ability that is comparable to the native aerogel.image