High-performance thermal insulators are urgently desired for energy-saving and thermal protection applications. However, the creation of such materials with synchronously ultralow thermal conductivity, lightweight, and mechanically robust properties still faces enormous challenges. Herein, a proton donor-regulated assembly strategy is presented to construct asymmetric aramid nanofiber (ANF) aerogel membranes with a dense skin layer and a high-porous nanofibrous body part. The asymmetric structure originates from the otherness of the structural restoration of deprotonated ANFs and the resulting ANF assembly due to the diversity of available proton concentrations. Befitting from the synergistic effect of the distinct architectures, the resulting aerogel membranes exhibit excellent overall performance in terms of a low thermal conductivity of 0.031 W·m–1·K–1, a low density of 19.2 mg·cm–3, a high porosity of 99.53%, a high tensile strength of 11.8 MPa (16.5 times enhanced), high heat resistance (>500 °C), and high flame retardancy. Furthermore, a blade-scraping process is further proposed to fabricate the aerogel membrane in a continuous and scalable manner, as it is believed to have potential applications in civil and military fields.

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a kind of organic–inorganic hybrid nanoparticle. This paper introduces the research progress of different kind of POSS organic–inorganic hybrid nanoparticles applied to lithium-ion batteries, fuel batteries, and supercapacitors by researchers on mechanical properties, thermal properties and electrochemistry properties. The results showed that the ionic conductivity of POSS/Li-ion solid polymer electrolyte reached 3.26[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]S/cm and mechanical properties were commendable. The proton conductivity of POSS hybrid proton exchange membranes came to the level of 6.46[Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]S/cm and the mechanical strength was 18[Formula: see text]MPa with less content of POSS. With the inorganic core of POSS, smaller and more uniform multi-pore electrode materials offer a new idea on the fabrication of supercapacitor electrode materials.

The technology of Lithium-ion battery (LIB) separator has become more and more mature. But there are still many problems that needed to be resolved. For example, its mechanical strength is low relatively, thermal stability is bad and the porosity and electrochemical performance are imperfect. This paper introduces modification of electrospinning LIB separator from the way of adding nanoparticles, including SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3 and copper titanate oxide, etc. And addition methods include dissolving in dispersant, dissolving in polymer solution, coating and in situ method. The modified membranes possess higher ionic conductivity which can reach to the level of 10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s/cm.