A Superelastic Xylan‐Stabilized Liquid Metal Aerogel for Wearable Energy Harvesting and Personal Thermal Management

ABSTRACT

The rapid development of wearable electronics places higher demands on materials with mechanical flexibility, sustainable energy supply, and thermal management. However, incorporating conductive fillers such as liquid metal (LM) into soft porous materials may introduce additional heat‐transfer pathways and complicate thermal management. Here, a molecular and structural engineering strategy is reported to integrate triboelectric energy harvesting with thermal insulation in a superelastic aerogel. Industrial xylan is converted into carboxymethyl xylan (CMX) through ball‐milling pretreatment and etherification, enabling stable dispersion of LM micro/nanodroplets. Subsequently, by synergistically integrating directional freezing and foaming, an aerogel with a unique interconnected perforated‐bubble structure is constructed. During 1000 compression cycles at a maximum strain of 60%, the aerogel exhibits progressively stabilized cyclic behavior, with residual strains of 8.7% and 11.5% in the transverse and longitudinal directions, respectively. The aerogel‐based triboelectric nanogenerator delivers an output voltage of 112 V, while the aerogel architecture maintains low transverse and longitudinal effective thermal conductivities of 35.8 and 39.5 mW m ⁻¹ K ⁻¹ , respectively. This work provides a structural design strategy for integrating triboelectric energy harvesting, mechanical resilience, and thermal insulation within a multifunctional soft aerogel.