Hybrid Microarchitecture-Engineered Flexible Composites with Multitemperature Adaptive Deformation for 2000 °C Thermal Protection

Thermal protection materials are indispensable for suppressing coupled thermal-mechanical-oxidative effects when they are subject to an external burning or ablation process. However, the thermal responsive behavior and spatial distribution of conventional ablation-resistant materials remain fixed, which fail to accommodate dynamic gaps owing to the mismatched thermal expansion and active expansion of components at high temperatures. In this work, a combination of phase-transition-induced thermal expandable microsphere and graphite intercalation compound are used to construct “intelligent” microstructural drive units. The composites not only provide multiple temperature responses (125, 200, and 250 °C) and shape-controllable reconfiguration but also synergistically enhance the thermal insulation (a temperature drop of 1820 °C occurs within a thickness of 10 mm) and ablation resistance. The transformation of microstructural drive units simultaneously confers adaptive thermal management for fast deformation at low temperatures and thermal insulation properties at high temperatures. The adaptive deformation behavior is complemented by ablation-resistant behavior, which represents a promising concept to fabricate intelligent thermal protection materials for targeted use in dynamic thermal protection scenarios.