Phase change extinction fiber doped aerogel vacuum insulation panels for high temperature insulation

Vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) are regarded as highly promising materials for thermal protection. Incorporating phase change extinction fibers into VIPs may become an effective approach to enhance both light shielding ability as well as transient insulation capacity, however, the related research remains scarce. This study presents a design featuring gradient doping of phase change fibers within base material Al2O3 aerogel for VIPs. The extinction performance and optimal doping ratio of this design are thoroughly investigated. Additionally, the advantages brought by vacuum and doped phase change fibers were explored emphatically. The investigation has demonstrated that the introduction of PCM@SiO2 for infrared modulation within vacuum insulation panels confers a remarkable enhancement to their extinction capabilities. Zn/Al@SiO2 doping reduced the radiative thermal conductivity of the material by 11.27 %, and the transient heat transfer rate was reduced by 21.37 %. Similar conclusions apply to the other two PCMs. The phase-change fiber layered doping modulation design improves the extinction performance of the undoped sample by 19.62 times at 1300 K. Relative to the non-vacuum counterpart, the time constant under vacuum conditions has increased by ∼5.98 times. Our research is beneficial to practical thermal protection field and provides valuable insights for the future design of thermal insulation materials.