Tailoring of a robust asymmetric aramid nanofibers/MXene aerogel film for enhanced infrared thermal camouflage and Joule heating performances
Wanbin Dang, Wei Guo, Wenting Chen, Qiuyu Zhang
Abstract
The development of infrared (IR) surveillance technology has led to a growing interest in thermal camouflage. However, the tradeoff relationship between low IR-emissivity and thermal insulation hinders the advance of thermal camouflage materials. Herein, guided by multi-physics simulation, we show a design of asymmetric aramid nanofibers/MXene (ANF/MXene) aerogel film that realizes high-efficient thermal camouflage applications. The rationale is that the asymmetric structure contains a thermal-insulation three-dimensional (3D) network part to prevent effective heat transfer and a low IR-emissivity (∼ 0.3) dense surface layer to suppress radiative heat emission. It is remarkable that the synergy mechanism in the topology structure contributes to over 40% reduction of target radiation temperature. Impressively, the tailored asymmetric ANF/MXene aerogel film also enables sound mechanical properties such as a Young’s modulus of 44.4 MPa and a tensile strength of 1.3 MPa, superior to most aerogel materials. It also exhibits great Joule heating performances including low driving voltage (4 V), fast thermal response (< 10 s), and long-term stability, further enabling its versatile thermal camouflage applications. This work offers an innovative design concept to configure multifunctional structures for next-generation thermal management applications.