Upscaled Preparation of Trimethylsilylated Chitosan Aerogel

Biobased nanofibrous aerogels are
one of the emerging topics in
materials chemistry because of their unique properties and environmental
friendliness, but their practical potential has not yet been fully
clarified. For the first step of an industrial feasibility study of
biobased nanofibrous aerogel as high-performance thermal insulators,
this paper aims to establish a preparation protocol of decimeter-sized
monoliths (∼120 × 120 mm2) of cross-linked
chitosan aerogels and their thermal conductivity evaluation. In contrast
to the well-studied silica aerogel, the chitosan gel has flexible
polymeric network and shows a drastic change in volume during the
process, which must be taken into consideration for the design of
solvent exchange protocol. The obtained aerogel shows a remarkably
low thermal conductivity of 16–17 mW m–1 K–1. This value shows that the chitosan aerogel is one
of the promising candidates for superinsulation materials in the next-generation
thermal energy management.