Aerogels are potential materials for aerospace application because they have lower thermal conductivity and light weight. Silica aerogels is restricted in aerospace application because of their fragility, hygroscopic nature and poor mechanical properties, especially in extreme aerospace environments. In order to fit the needs of the aerospace technology, novel insulation materials with flexibility, lighter weight, and moisture resistance are needed. To this end, we fabricated a series of polyimide aerogels by cross-linking polyimide oligomers with different kinds of poly(maleic anhydride-alt-alkylene) as shown in Scheme 1. The resulted aerogels has low density (0.06-0.16 g/cm3) and high surface area (240-425 m2/g). The effect of different backbone structure on the density, porosity, shrinkage, surface area, mechanical properties, and moisture resistance were studied. The aerogels may be potential candidates in variety of aeronautic and space applications, such as space suit insulation for planetary surface missions, insulation for inflatable structures for habitats, inflatable aerodynamic decelerators for entry, descent and landing (EDL) operations, and cryotank insulation for advance space propulsion systems. Scheme 1. Network of polyimide aerogels formed by crosslinking polyimide oligomers with different kinds of poly(maleic anhydride-alt-alkylene)

Flexible polyimide aerogels cross-linked by poly(maleic anhydride-alt-alkylene)

247th National Meeting (2014)

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