Phase stability, flexibility and thermal insulation of DyTaO4 fibers

In this paper, DyTaO 4 fiber membrane and fiber sponge were successfully prepared by electrospinning for the first time from new precursors of Dy and Ta. DyTaO 4 fibers were crystallized at only 430 °C from amorphous precursor fibers and without phase transformation up to 1600 °C. The fiber membranes have tensile strength (0.75 ± 0.20 MPa @ 800 °C) and flexibility, exhibits excellent flexural and compressive resilience properties, which can replace thermal insulation layer in firefighting suits and exhibit excellent thermal insulation properties and ablation resistance. The fiber sponge with the density of about 65 mg·cm −3 has low thermal conductivity of 23.5 and 86.4 mW·m −1 ·K −1 at room temperature and 1000 °C, respectively. Butane gun flame as heat source, the sample with the thickness of 25 mm can reduce the temperature from 1300 °C to 150 °C. After 600 s, the surface hardness of the fiber sponges was increased, but the sample still maintained excellent flexibility. This work provides a new way for rare-earth tantalates to meet high-temperature flexible applications by fully utilizing their advantages