Visible Microfluidic Deprotonation for Aramid Nanofibers as Building Blocks of Cascade-Microfluidic-Processed Colloidal Aerogels.

 Microfluidic deprotonation approach is proposed to realize continuous, scalable, efficient, and uniform production of aramid nanofibers (ANFs) by virtue of large specific surface area, high mixing efficiency, strong heat transfer capacity, narrow residence time distribution, mild laminar-flow process, and amplification-free effect of the microchannel reactor. By means of monitoring capabilities endowed by the high transparency of the microchannel, the kinetic exfoliation process of original aramid particles is in situ observed and the corresponding exfoliation mechanism is established quantificationally. The deprotonated time can be reduced from the traditional several days to 7 min for the final colloidal dispersion due to the synergistic effect between enhanced local shearing/mixing and the rotational motion of aramid particles in microchannel revealed by numerical simulations. Furthermore, the cascade microfluidic processing approach is used to make various ANF colloidal aerogels including aerogel fibers, aerogel films, and 3D-printed aerogel articles. Comprehensive characterizations show that these cascade-microfluidic-processed colloidal aerogels have identical features as those prepared in batch-style mode, revealing the versatile use value of these ANFs. This work achieves significant progress toward continuous and efficient production of ANFs, bringing about appreciable prospects for the practical application of ANF-based materials and providing inspiration for exfoliating any other nano-building blocks.

Liquid-in-Aerogel Porous Composite Allows Efficient CO2 Capture and CO2 /N2 Separation.

The pursuit of efficient CO2 capture materials remains an unmet challenge. Especially, meeting both high sorption capacity and fast uptake kinetics is an ongoing effort in the development of CO2 sorbents. Here, a strategy to exploit liquid-in-aerogel porous composites (LIAPCs) that allow for highly effective CO2 capture and selective CO2 /N2 separation, is reported. Interestingly, the functional liquid tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) is partially filled into the air pockets of SiO2 aerogel with left permanent porosity. Notably, the confined liquid thickness is 10.9-19.5 nm, which can be vividly probed by the atomic force microscope and rationalized by tailoring the liquid composition and amount. LIAPCs achieve high affinity between the functional liquid and solid porous counterpart, good structure integrity, and robust thermal stability. LIAPCs exhibit superb CO2 uptake capacity (5.44 mmol g-1 , 75 °C, and 15 vol% CO2 ), fast sorption kinetics, and high amine efficiency. Furthermore, LIAPCs ensure long-term adsorption-desorption cycle stability and offer exceptional CO2 /N2 selectivity both in dry and humid conditions, with a separation factor up to 1182.68 at a humidity of 1%. This approach offers the prospect of efficient CO2 capture and gas separation, shedding light on new possibilities to make the next-generation sorption materials for CO2 utilization.