Ramirez-Cuevas, Francisco V;
Gurunatha, Kargal L;
Li, Lingxi;
Zulfiqar, Usama;
Sathasivam, Sanjayan;
Tiwari, Manish K;
Parkin, Ivan P;
(2024)
Infrared thermochromic antenna composite for self-adaptive thermoregulation.
Nature Communications
, 15
(1)
, Article 9109. 10.1038/s41467-024-53177-6.
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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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Infrared thermochromic antenna composite for self-adaptive thermoregulation |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-024-53177-6 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53177-6 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 Springer Nature Limited. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10217015 |
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