Tailored nanoporous architecture in flexible polymeric aerogel enabling ultrabroadband PHz (VL)–THz–GHz wireless communication
Ultrabroadband electromagnetic wave (EMW) transparent materials across petahertz (PHz; visible light range), terahertz (THz), and gigahertz (GHz) range are crucial for sixth-generation (6G) to XG wireless communication. However, current EMW transparent materials cannot meet the design requirements for ultrabroadband PHz-THz-GHz antenna devices. In this study, we report the design and fabrication of flexible polyimide aerogel (PIA) capable of PHz-THz-GHz transmission based on a hybrid cross-linking strategy: (i) The combination of chemical and physical cross-linking enables the construction of a highly porous topology, yielding an ultralow dielectric constant (D k ∼ 1.1) and improved impedance matching to minimize EMW interfacial reflection; (ii) coupling the hybrid cross-linking network with supercritical CO 2 (scCO 2 ) drying produces a uniform nanoporous architecture, effectively suppressing EMW Mie scattering; (iii) hybrid cross-linking strategy integrated with fluoride functional group modification design further reduces multiband EMW absorption across the PHz-THz-GHz range. Meanwhile, these aerogel materials demonstrate outstanding environmental stability and mechanical robustness, enabling their use in extended application scenarios. Consequently, an ultrabroadband PHz-GHz antenna was fabricated using the PIA material as the transmission interface, demonstrating continuous wireless communication even when the low-frequency GHz band is partially blocked by maintaining signal transmission through the high-frequency PHz band.
Authors
- Takao Someya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3051-1138)
- Qiwu Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4776-5727)
- Haoyu Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9327-8196)
- Dengyang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1960-7138)
- Tomoyuki Yokota (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1546-8864)
- Junlong Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5997-224X)
- Chul B. Park (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1702-1268)
- Le Xi
- Jie He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1241-2374)
- Haiyu Wang
- Guangxian Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0017-1743)
- Jin Leng
- Rongli Zhu
Institutions
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-08-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec4385
- Primary Topic
- Aerogels and thermal insulation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China