{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,5]],"date-time":"2025-11-05T05:35:40Z","timestamp":1762320940136,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]],"date-time":"2025-11-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761955200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003453","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2023A1515010841","2025A1515010050"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023A1515010841","2025A1515010050"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003453","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Polymers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Aerogels combine ultralow density with high surface area, yet their brittle, open networks preclude tensile deformation and hinder integration into wearable electronics. Here we introduce a prestrain-enabled coaxial architecture that converts a brittle conductive aerogel into a highly stretchable fiber. A porous thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) hollow sheath is wet-spun using a sacrificial lignin template to ensure solvent exchange and robust encapsulation. Conductive polymer-based precursor dispersions are infused into prestretched TPE tubes, frozen, and lyophilized; releasing the prestretch then programs a buckled aerogel core that unfolds during elongation without catastrophic fracture. The resulting TPE-wrapped aerogel fibers exhibit reversible elongation up to 250% while retaining electrical function. At low strains (&lt;60%), resistance changes are small and stable (\u0394R\/R0 &lt; 0.04); at larger strains the response remains monotonic and fully recoverable, enabling broad-range sensing. The mechanism is captured by a strain-dependent percolation model in which elastic decompression, contact sliding, and controlled fragmentation\/reconnection of the aerogel network govern the signal. This generalizable strategy decouples elasticity from conductivity, establishing a scalable route to ultralight, encapsulated, and skin-compatible aerogel fibers for smart textiles and deformable electronics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/polym17212936","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,3]],"date-time":"2025-11-03T14:00:33Z","timestamp":1762178433000},"page":"2936","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Prestrain-Enabled Stretchable and Conductive Aerogel Fibers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Hao","family":"Yin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jian","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronic Materials and Wearable Devices, Laboratory of Advanced Electronics and Fiber Materials, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4243","DOI":"10.1021\/cr0101306","article-title":"Chemistry of Aerogels and Their Applications","volume":"102","author":"Pierre","year":"2002","journal-title":"Chem. Rev."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6817","DOI":"10.1021\/acsnano.7b01815","article-title":"Biomimetic Architectured Graphene Aerogel with Exceptional Strength and Resilience","volume":"11","author":"Yang","year":"2017","journal-title":"ACS Nano"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4403","DOI":"10.1021\/acsomega.8b00144","article-title":"Dual Wet and Dry Resilient Cellulose II Fibrous Aerogel for High-Performance Air Filtration","volume":"3","author":"Jiang","year":"2018","journal-title":"ACS Omega"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1900651","DOI":"10.1002\/adma.201900651","article-title":"Superelastic Hard Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels","volume":"31","author":"Yu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Adv. 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Sci."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3579","DOI":"10.1021\/acssensors.3c02555","article-title":"Current On-Skin Flexible Sensors, Materials, Manufacturing, and Trends","volume":"9","author":"Ferreira","year":"2024","journal-title":"ACS Sens."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104305","DOI":"10.1016\/j.nanoen.2019.104305","article-title":"Nanocellulose Aerogel-Based Porous Coaxial Fibers for Thermal Insulation","volume":"68","author":"Zhou","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nano Energy"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1705591","DOI":"10.1002\/adfm.201705591","article-title":"Coaxial Thermoplastic Elastomer-Wrapped Carbon Nanotube Fibers for Deformable and Wearable Strain Sensors","volume":"28","author":"Zhou","year":"2018","journal-title":"Adv. Funct. Mater."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1907316","DOI":"10.1002\/adfm.201907316","article-title":"Buckled Conductive Polymer Ribbons in Elastomer Channels as Stretchable Fiber Conductor","volume":"30","author":"Zhou","year":"2020","journal-title":"Adv. Funct. Mater."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19810","DOI":"10.1021\/acsnano.2c08166","article-title":"Stretchable One-Dimensional Conductors for Wearable Applications","volume":"16","author":"Nie","year":"2022","journal-title":"ACS Nano"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e2307772","DOI":"10.1002\/adma.202307772","article-title":"Mechanically Strengthened Aerogels through Multiscale, Multicompositional, and Multidimensional Approaches: A Review","volume":"36","author":"Parale","year":"2024","journal-title":"Adv. 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