Liang Huaxu, Zhang Xinping, Wang Fuqiang, Li Chunzhe, Yuan Weizhe, Meng Weifeng, Cheng Ziming, Dong Yan, Shi Xuhang, Yan Yuying, Yi Hongliang, Shuai Yong, Long Yi
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 West Dazhi Street, Harbin, 150001, China.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
Light Sci Appl. 2024 Aug 21;13(1):202. doi: 10.1038/s41377-024-01525-y.
Thermochromic hydrogels exhibit a smart capacity for regulating solar spectrum transmission, enabling automatically change their transmissivity in response to the ambient temperature change. This has great importance for energy conservation purposes. Military and civilian emergency thermochromic applications require rapid visible-light stealth (VLS); however, concurrent smart solar transmission and rapid VLS is yet to be realized. Inspired by squid-skin, we propose a micropatterned thermochromic hydrogel (MTH) to realize the concurrent control of smart solar transmittance and rapid VLS at all-working temperatures. The MTH possesses two optical regulation mechanisms: optical property regulation and optical scattering, controlled by temperature and pressure, respectively. The introduced surface micropattern strategy can arbitrarily switch between normal and diffuse transmission, and the VLS response time is within 1 s compared with previous ~180 s. The MTH also has a high solar-transmission regulation range of 61%. Further, the MTH preparation method is scalable and cost-effective. This novel regulation mechanism opens a new pathway towards applications with multifunctional optical requirements.
热致变色水凝胶具有调节太阳光谱透射率的智能能力，能够根据环境温度变化自动改变其透射率。这对于节能目的具有重要意义。军事和民用应急热致变色应用需要快速可见光隐身（VLS）；然而，同时实现智能太阳透射和快速VLS尚未实现。受鱿鱼皮启发，我们提出了一种微图案化热致变色水凝胶（MTH），以在所有工作温度下实现智能太阳透射率和快速VLS的同时控制。MTH具有两种光学调节机制：光学性质调节和光学散射，分别由温度和压力控制。引入的表面微图案策略可以在正常透射和漫透射之间任意切换，与之前约180秒相比，VLS响应时间在1秒以内。MTH还具有61%的高太阳透射调节范围。此外，MTH制备方法具有可扩展性且成本效益高。这种新型调节机制为满足多功能光学需求的应用开辟了一条新途径。
