Fabrication of multifunctional cellulose aerogel materials with one-dimensional (fiber), two-dimensional (film), and three-dimensional (structure) structures based on ambient drying technology

Cellulose aerogels are widely regarded as an ideal thermal insulation material. However, the production equipment of aerogels, such as supercritical dryers or lyophilisers, requires extreme operating conditions. The present study has developed a novel method that combines thermally induced phase separation with heterogeneous ice nucleation to prepare cellulose aerogels via an ambient drying process. This methodology can be applied to a variety of manufacturing technologies in order to produce fibers (1D), films (2D) and complex structures (3D). The resulting cellulose aerogels fibers exhibit an excellent tensile strength of 25.63 MPa, a high porosity of 91.2%, and a strain value of 81.9%. This represents a substantial enhancement over conventional cellulose aerogel fibers (approximately 2%). It demonstrated that the thermal insulation performance remained stable even after the material was subjected to washing and dyeing processes. This preparation strategy offers a plethora of possibilities for the development of multifunctional cellulose aerogel fibers, cellulose aerogel films, and three-dimensional cellulose aerogel structures.