Recently, the research team led by Prof. Luo Xiaobing of EPE, HUST, have written a review article entitled "Thermal camouflaging metamaterials" published on Materials Today, a world well-known journal (impact factor: 26.416), with Associate Prof. Hu Run of EPE as the first author. Prof. Luo Xiaobing, Prof. Wu Junqiao from University of California, Berkeley, and Prof. Qiu Chengwei from National University of Singapore (NUS) are the co-corresponding authors.
It's normal that any object above absolute zero will spontaneously radiate energy. In this regard, an infrared imager specifically designed to detect infrared radiation can be applied to detect objects in environment. Thermal camouflage, on the other hand, is an emerging technology against this detection method, with the adjustment of the surface infrared radiation of the camouflaged object to get close to the ambient infrared radiation as its core, thereby hiding the object. Therefore, how to design a structure with specific properties (such as anisotropic thermal conductivity, and band selective emissivity, etc.) to control object radiation, has become the key to thermal camouflage research. This article reviews the research progress in conductive heat camouflage for temperature control, radiant heat camouflage for surface emissivity control, and dynamic thermal camouflage adaptable to the scene, summarizes their respective camouflage principles, design methods and latest development, and looks forward to the direction of thermal camouflage development.
Timeline and roadmap for thermal camouflaging metamaterials from conductive, radiative, dynamic strategies, to the future directions.
Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2020.11.013
