Infrared thermochromic antenna composite for self-adaptive thermoregulation

Francisco V. Ramirez-Cuevas, Kargal L. Gurunatha, Lingxi Li, Usama Zulfiqar, Sanjayan Sathasivam, Manish K. Tiwari, Ivan P. Parkin, Ioannis Papakonstantinou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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 (Δϵ) 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 Δϵ~0.6 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.
Original languageEnglish
Article number9109
Pages (from-to)9109
Number of pages9
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue number1
Early online date22 Oct 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 22 Oct 2024
Externally publishedYes

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