Conductive aerogels have received extensive attention in a variety of application fields such as structural engineering and electrochemistry due to their lightweight, porous and conductive properties. The stiffness of aerogel is a key factor affecting its performance. So compared with conventional single stiffness aerogels, the preparation of conductive aerogels with gradient stiffness properties is expected to achieve better stiffness matching and greater performance. Here, we develop a theoretical model of the gradient stiffness carbon nanotube (CNT) network and analyze the factors affecting the stiffness of the model from several perspectives, including spatial configuration and intrinsic parameters. Then, according to the guidance of the simulation results, actual CNT aerogels with gradient stiffness properties are successfully synthesized which have an ultra-wide range of stiffness variations. The unique lightweight gradient stiffness conductive aerogels are expected to show outstanding performance in many stiffness-dominated application fields.

导电气凝胶由于其轻质、多孔和导电等特性，在结构工程和电化学等多种应用领域受到广泛关注。气凝胶的刚度是影响其性能的关键因素。因此与传统的单刚度气凝胶相比，制备具有梯度刚度特性的导电气凝胶有望实现更好的刚度匹配和更高的性能。在这里，我们建立了梯度刚度碳纳米管（CNT）网络的理论模型，并从空间构型和内在参数等多个角度分析了影响模型刚度的因素。然后，根据模拟结果的指导，成功合成了具有梯度刚度特性的实际碳纳米管气凝胶，其具有超宽范围的刚度变化。独特的轻质梯度刚度导电气凝胶有望在许多刚度主导的应用领域表现出出色的性能。