Abstract
Aerogels exhibit excellent properties owing to their nano-sized building blocks and unique structures. With increasing application demands, traditional nanoscale building blocks have limitations in further optimizing the performance of aerogels; therefore, the development of novel, high-performance building blocks has become an urgent challenge in the field. Sub-1 nm nanowires (SNWs) exhibit polymer-like properties that make them superior to nanoscale nanowires, and are well-suited as new building blocks for aerogels. In this study, we achieved precise control over the aggregation state of GdOOH SNWs (Gd–SNWs) in three-dimensional space by regulating the interactions between SNWs as well as between SNWs and solvents, thereby obtaining SNW aerogels (SNWAs) with low density ( ~ 0.024 g cm−3) and high specific surface area (505 m2 g−1). After silanization, the superhydrophobic SNWAs exhibited excellent fatigue resistance (50 cycles with a set strain of 50%). This innovative approach enriches the types of aerogels building blocks and opens up new avenues for high-performance aerogels.
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Data availability
All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary files. Any additional information related to the study is available from the corresponding author upon request. The source data generated in this study are provided in the Source Data file. The raw data are available on Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18811572. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52164013 and 22466028) to H.S. and R.F., Local Science and Technology Development Fund Projects Guided by the Central Government (2023ZY0022) to H.S., the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (2025YQ047) to H.S.
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Y.D., Y.X., and H.S. conceived and designed the research. Y.D. carried out the experiments, analyzed data and wrote the manuscript. X.Y., R.F., D.L., and L.L. assisted in the characterization. Y.D., Y.X., R.F., and H.S. supervised the project and modified the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and reviewed the manuscript.
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Du, Y., Xiu, Y., Yang, X. et al. Controllable assembly of sub-1 nm nanowires for the construction of aerogels. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70713-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70713-8
