Resilient ceramic aerogels exhibit great potential for applications in harsh environments owing to their unique combination of ultrahigh porosity, lightweight, reversible compressibility, and good thermal and chemical stabilities. However, their applications are severely restricted by the limited size and low yield due to their complicated and time-consuming synthetic procedures. Herein, we developed an efficient method for large-scale production of resilient SiC nanowire aerogels (SiC NWAGs) with tunable densities and desired shapes. The as-synthesized SiC NWAGs displayed excellent high-temperature stability (the maximum working temperature in Ar and air can reach to 1400 and 1000 °C, respectively), outstanding flame-erosion resistance and low thermal conductivity (25 mW m–1 K–1). The easy fabrication of such ceramic aerogel on a large scale will pave the way for the widespread applications of ceramic aerogels.

Ceramic aerogels are attractive candidates for high-temperature thermal insulation, catalysis support, and ultrafiltration materials, but their practical applications are usually limited by brittleness. Recently, reversible compressibility has been realized in flexible nanostructures-based ceramic aerogels. However, these modified aerogels still show fast and brittle fracture under tension. Herein, we demonstrate achieving reversible stretch and crack insensitivity in a highly compressible ceramic aerogel through engineering its microstructure by using curly SiC-SiO x bicrystal nanowire as the building blocks. The aerogel exhibits large-strain reversible stretch (20%) and good resistance to high-speed tensile fatigue test. Even for a prenotched sample, a reversible stretch at 10% strain is achieved, indicating good crack resistance. The aerogel also displays reversible compressibility up to 80% strain, ultralow thermal conductivity of 28.4 mW m–1 K–1, and excellent thermal stability even at temperatures as high as 1200 °C in butane blow torch or as low as −196 °C in liquid nitrogen. Our findings show that the attractive tensile properties arise from the deformation, interaction, and reorientation of the curly nanowires which could reduce stress concentration and suppress crack initiation and growth during tension. This study not only expands the applicability of ceramic aerogels to conditions involving complex dynamic stress under extreme temperature conditions but also benefits the design of other highly stretchable and crack-resistant porous ceramic materials for various applications.

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