Infrared thermochromic antenna composite for self-adaptive thermoregulation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39438455.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-53177-6 and PMC identifier 11496700.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Self-adaptive thermoregulation, the mechanism living organisms use to balance their temperature, holds great promise for decarbonizing cooling and heating processes. This functionality can be effectively emulated by engineering the thermal emissivity of materials to adapt to background temperature variations. Yet, solutions that marry large emissivity switching ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>Δ</mi> <mi>ϵ</mi></math> ) with scalability, cost-effectiveness, and design freedom are still lacking. Here, we fill this gap by introducing infrared dipole antennas made of tunable thermochromic materials. We demonstrate that non-spherical antennas (rods, stars and flakes) made of vanadium-dioxide can exhibit a massive (~200-fold) increase in their absorption cross-section as temperature rises. Embedding these antennas in polymer films, or simply spraying them directly, creates free-form thermoregulation composites, featuring an outstanding <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>Δ</mi> <mi>ϵ</mi> <mo>~</mo> <mn>0.6</mn></math> in spectral ranges that can be tuned at will. Our research paves the way for versatile self-adaptive heat management solutions (coatings, fibers, membranes, and films) that could find application in radiative-cooling, heat-sensing, thermal-camouflage, and other.