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A new collection of chemically diverse dome-celled ultralight aerogels with high porosity and very low density feature elasticity and mechanical properties that remain intact even under extreme temperatures from 4.2 kelvin (K) to 2273 K.

In their published in Science, researchers report 194 dome-celled aerogels featuring more than 30 different elements with a wide range of chemical compositions, including 121 oxides, 38 carbides, and 35 metal species.

The dome-shaped structure of the hydrogel, inspired by mechanically superior biological and architectural engineering, was obtained using a 2D channel–confined chemistry technique with graphene oxide (GO) films as the starting material. This unique geometry provides an excellent load-bearing capacity and mechanical stability, enabling greater storage of elastic strain energy compared to conventional structures.

Two scientists in the early 1900s made a bet on whether one could remove liquid from a jelly and replace it with air without the jelly shrinking in size. The outcome of this scientific wager was the creation of aerogel, a synthetic ultralight material with high porosity and low density that is commonly derived from silica and has 50%–99.98% air by volume.

Ever since their creation, aerogels have found applications in thermal insulation, drug delivery, energy storage, gas absorption, and numerous other fields. Despite their versatility, traditional aerogels suffer from mechanical brittleness and poor elasticity.

To push the limitations of aerogel performance, the researchers developed aerogels that exhibit remarkable superelasticity—enduring 99% strain over 20,000 cycles—and exceptional thermal shock resistance at 2273 K across more than 100 cycles.

To achieve this state, researchers developed a straightforward method to create dome-celled aerogels using GO films as the starting material, as they are thin, chemically versatile, and commercially available. The aerogel synthesis involved three main steps: capturing ions, forming bubbles, and applying heat.

For the first step, the GO films were soaked in salt solutions containing single or multiple ion species. The layered structure of GO allowed water to enter easily, forming a confined 2D space capable of trapping ions from solutions via chelation interactions with the oxygen functional groups of GO.

Next, a foaming agent was added to generate dome-shaped bubbles inside the GO layers. As a last step, the dome-shaped bubbles were subjected to a thermal treatment process to remove the GO and convert them into the final neat aerogels.

The researchers also ensured that the dome cells were designed to be interconnected through surface contact, as it was crucial to enabling efficient load transfer across the network and enhancing the overall elasticity of the aerogels.

They believe that the superior physical properties of these aerogels make them excellent candidates for demanding thermomechanical applications, ranging from heat-insulated industrial systems to the harsh environments of deep space exploration.

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