Thermochromic Wood Veneer Synchronized Color-Transparency Switching for Multimodal Dynamic Response.

Abstract

Thermally responsive optical materials attract wide applications in information encryption, smart sensors, and intelligent interfaces. However, simultaneously achieving optical switching and multimodal responsiveness with long-term stability remains a challenge. Herein, we develop a thermochromic wood veneer (TWV) that integrates characteristics of color-transparency switching with multimodal thermal activation. This is achieved by incorporating thermochromic microcapsules into a porous wood scaffold and inducing interactions between PVA and cellulose molecules. The resulting TWV exhibits a response temperature about 31 °C in ambient conditions, favorable cyclic stability over 500 thermal cycles, and superior tolerant temperature (-196 °C to 100 °C). Moreover, TWV demonstrates multicolor-transparency switching and diverse thermal activation modalities, including bulk heating, heat transfer printing, and lithography printing. Leveraging the advancement of wood nanotechnology, this work establishes an insight into developing optical and thermal dynamic-response devices from natural resources for advanced applications, such as heat transfer/lithography printing, information encryption/decryption, and smart sensors and tags.