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• A boric acid-regulated sol–gel transition strategy is used to achieve modulation of the morphology. • Ethanol is employed as a green solvent for the preparation of boron-doped polybenzoxazine (BPBz) aerogels. • The introduction of boric acid provides multifunctional properties to BPBz aerogels. • The BPBz aerogels exhibit intrinsic and alterable wettability that correlates with their morphologies. Polybenzoxazine aerogels have gained widespread attention in recent years, but the prevalent use of hazardous solvents in the preparation process has severely impeded their further development and promotion for practical applications. Herein, using ethanol as a solvent, a strategy of boric acid-induced microstructure regulation is proposed to construct boron-doped polybenzoxazine (BPBz) aerogels, which provides a feasible approach to overcome the above situation. The introduction of boric acid enhances the backbone strength by forming intermolecular bridged structures between PBz chains and allows the use of ambient pressure drying. The resulting BPBz aerogel demonstrates high stiffness (specific modulus up to 255.97 kN·m·kg−1), low bulk density (0.203 g·cm−3), and low thermal conductivity (0.043 W·m−1·K−1), exhibiting excellent fire resistance when exposed to a 1200 °C flame (the self-extinguishing interval less than 1 s). More interestingly, the aerogel demonstrates intrinsic and tunable wettability that correlates with the morphology. Combining the environmentally friendly preparation strategy and these advantages, BPBz aerogels hold promise for thermal management and fire protection applications in energy-saving construction and other harsh conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silica aerogels with different particle size were prepared by monodispersed silica sol for the first time. The properties of the silica aerogels under normal and high temperature were systematically studied. Among the four different particle size aerogels, the SA-2 sample consisted of 20.31 ± 1.21 nm particles with narrow size distribution had high temperature resistance and low thermal conductivity. Compared with the traditional acid-base two-step prepared silica aerogels, the monodisperse silica aerogels can significantly increase the temperature resistance while maintaining a low thermal conductivity (0.02723 W·m−1·K−1). The sturdy skeleton structure formed by the interconnection of large particles can effectively inhibit the viscous flow between aerogel particles and avoid pore collapse caused by skeleton failure which can maintain a stable structure until 900 °C and retain a relatively complete structure at 1000 °C with only about 35% volume shrinkage after 2 h heat treatment. At 1100 °C, the viscous flow between aerogel particles and pore collapse cannot be effectively suppressed, and the pure silica aerogels can only be used during a short period at 1100 °C. The results will be meaningful for the design of super thermal insulation materials with high temperature resistance and low thermal conductivity. Unlabelled Image • SiO 2 aerogels with high temperature resistance are prepared by controllable particle size monodispersed silica sol. • Thermal conductivity of SiO 2 aerogels is as low as 0.02723 W·m−1·K−1 despite forming large particle structure. • The aerogel large particle skeleton structure can inhibit the viscous flow between aerogel particles. • Pore collapse caused by skeleton failure can be obviously inhibited depending on formed sturdy skeletons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]