Tailoring the Microstructure of Lamellar Ti3C2Tx MXene Aerogel by Compressive Straining
(2022) In ACS Nano 16(2). p.1896-1908- Abstract
Aerogels are attracting increasing interest due to their functional properties, such as lightweight and high porosity, which make them promising materials for energy storage and advanced composites. Compressive deformation allows the nano- and microstructure of lamellar freeze-cast aerogels to be tailored toward the aforementioned applications, where a 3D nanostructure of closely spaced, aligned sheets is desired. Quantitatively characterizing their microstructural evolution during compression is needed to allow optimization of manufacturing, understand in-service structural changes, and determine how aerogel structure relates to functional properties. Herein we have developed methods to quantitatively analyze lamellar aerogel domains,... (More)
Aerogels are attracting increasing interest due to their functional properties, such as lightweight and high porosity, which make them promising materials for energy storage and advanced composites. Compressive deformation allows the nano- and microstructure of lamellar freeze-cast aerogels to be tailored toward the aforementioned applications, where a 3D nanostructure of closely spaced, aligned sheets is desired. Quantitatively characterizing their microstructural evolution during compression is needed to allow optimization of manufacturing, understand in-service structural changes, and determine how aerogel structure relates to functional properties. Herein we have developed methods to quantitatively analyze lamellar aerogel domains, sheet spacing, and sheet orientation in 3D and to track their evolution as a function of increasing compression through synchrotron phase contrast X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT). The as-cast domains are predominantly aligned with the freezing direction with random orientation in the orthogonal plane. Generally the sheets rotate toward flat and their spacing narrows progressively with increasing compression with negligible lateral strain (zero Poisson’s ratio). This is with the exception of sheets close to parallel with the loading direction (Z), which maintain their orientation and sheet spacing until ∼60% compression, beyond which they exhibit buckling. These data suggest that a single-domain, fully aligned as-cast aerogel is not necessary to produce a post-compression aligned lamellar structure and indicate how the spacing can be tailored as a function of compressive strain. The analysis methods presented herein are applicable to optimizing freeze-casting process and quantifying lamellar microdomain structures generally.
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- author
- Rawson, Shelley D. ; Bayram, Vildan ; McDonald, Samuel A. LU ; Yang, Pei ; Courtois, Loic ; Guo, Yi ; Xu, Jiaqi ; Burnett, Timothy L. ; Barg, Suelen and Withers, Philip J.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-02-22
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- architectures, freeze-casting, micro domains, MXenes, nanomaterial, time lapse imaging
- in
- ACS Nano
- volume
- 16
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 13 pages
- publisher
- The American Chemical Society (ACS)
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:35130692
- scopus:85125020338
- ISSN
- 1936-0851
- DOI
- 10.1021/acsnano.1c04538
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- bf12d2e6-f563-4b99-9229-ab47dcfa6f9f
- date added to LUP
- 2022-06-14 14:22:55
- date last changed
- 2025-03-07 08:54:59
@article{bf12d2e6-f563-4b99-9229-ab47dcfa6f9f,
abstract = {{<p>Aerogels are attracting increasing interest due to their functional properties, such as lightweight and high porosity, which make them promising materials for energy storage and advanced composites. Compressive deformation allows the nano- and microstructure of lamellar freeze-cast aerogels to be tailored toward the aforementioned applications, where a 3D nanostructure of closely spaced, aligned sheets is desired. Quantitatively characterizing their microstructural evolution during compression is needed to allow optimization of manufacturing, understand in-service structural changes, and determine how aerogel structure relates to functional properties. Herein we have developed methods to quantitatively analyze lamellar aerogel domains, sheet spacing, and sheet orientation in 3D and to track their evolution as a function of increasing compression through synchrotron phase contrast X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT). The as-cast domains are predominantly aligned with the freezing direction with random orientation in the orthogonal plane. Generally the sheets rotate toward flat and their spacing narrows progressively with increasing compression with negligible lateral strain (zero Poisson’s ratio). This is with the exception of sheets close to parallel with the loading direction (Z), which maintain their orientation and sheet spacing until ∼60% compression, beyond which they exhibit buckling. These data suggest that a single-domain, fully aligned as-cast aerogel is not necessary to produce a post-compression aligned lamellar structure and indicate how the spacing can be tailored as a function of compressive strain. The analysis methods presented herein are applicable to optimizing freeze-casting process and quantifying lamellar microdomain structures generally.</p>}},
author = {{Rawson, Shelley D. and Bayram, Vildan and McDonald, Samuel A. and Yang, Pei and Courtois, Loic and Guo, Yi and Xu, Jiaqi and Burnett, Timothy L. and Barg, Suelen and Withers, Philip J.}},
issn = {{1936-0851}},
keywords = {{architectures; freeze-casting; micro domains; MXenes; nanomaterial; time lapse imaging}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{02}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{1896--1908}},
publisher = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
series = {{ACS Nano}},
title = {{Tailoring the Microstructure of Lamellar Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<sub>x</sub> MXene Aerogel by Compressive Straining}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c04538}},
doi = {{10.1021/acsnano.1c04538}},
volume = {{16}},
year = {{2022}},
}