Evaluation of the heat absorption performance of konjac glucomannan/starch aerogel

Polysaccharide-based aerogels show great potential in heat absorption, but it lacks comprehensive evaluation system for their endothermic properties. To fully assess their endothermic properties, konjac glucomannan (KGM)/starch aerogel was used and its heat absorption performance (HAP) was investigated. It was found that the heat absorption ability of the samples was attributed to thermal collapse of the samples at high temperature. The composition, structure, size and mass of aerogels would have effect on their HAP. The cellulose acetate (CA) aerogel showed better HAP than KGM/starch aerogel with the same volume. However, the performance of KGM/starch aerogel excelled CA under the same mass. These results were in accordance with the results obtained by thermal conductivity analyzer, which indicated the potential of the system to evaluate the HAP of the aerogels comprehensively.