Origami-inspired folded-interlocked nanofiber aerogels for thermal insulation

Nanofiber aerogels (NFAs) are promising thermal insulation materials for extreme environments; however, simultaneously achieving mechanical robustness, resilience, and low thermal conductivity remains a long-standing challenge in layered NFAs, where interlaminar instability often compromises structural reliability. Here we present an origami-inspired structural engineering strategy to construct folded-interlocked nanofiber aerogels. A folded-interlocked origami skeleton, integrated with a tailored interlaminar structure, introduces geometric confinement and fiber-mediated interlaminar toughening. As a result, the aerogels exhibit high compressive strength (548.02 kPa at 80% strain) and a near-zero Poisson’s ratio. Importantly, the robust interlaminar network enhances resistance to delamination, allowing the aerogels to sustain tensile deformation up to approximately 40% strain before interlaminar failure. Meanwhile, interlaminar-guided heat-flow redistribution yields a low axial thermal conductivity of 0.035 W m−1 K−1 and pronounced anisotropic thermal insulation. This work provides an architectural strategy for designing folded-interlocked NFAs for thermal protection in aerospace and other harsh environments. Chen et al. report origami-inspired folded-interlocked nanofiber aerogels that combine mechanical resilience with low axial thermal conductivity through geometric confinement and an interlaminar fibrous network.