Temperature-control and low emissivity dual-working modular infrared stealth fabric

Abstract

Materials with significant infrared (IR) stealth effect have been of great importance for camouflage of military targets and thermal management of special environments. In this paper, we design a dual-working module IR stealth fabric with electroless silver plated fabric component and heat-absorbing component derived from a phase change material (PCM) coating. The aim of electroless silver plating is to reduce the IR emissivity to 0.692 (1–22 µm), 0.687 (8–14 µm) and 0.655 (3–5 µm), and the PCM coating provides a phase change latent heat of 128.5 J/g to further lower temperature. Temperature measurements show that the PCM coating can create a maximum actual temperature difference of 21.6 °C with untreated fabric on a 65 °C hot plate and maintain the surface actual temperature below 38 ℃ for 300 s. IR camera images show that the as-prepared IR stealth fabric can significantly shield or interfere with the IR heat signature of the target compared to the untreated fabric. In addition, related performance tests show that it can meet the fastness requirements for practical use. Benefiting from the modulation of the dual working modules and the good fastness, this IR stealth fabric has great potential for practical applications.