Beyond the Visible: Bioinspired Infrared Adaptive Materials

Infrared (IR) adaptation phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and biological systems. Taking inspiration from natural creatures, researchers have devoted extensive efforts for developing advanced IR adaptive materials and exploring their applications in areas of smart camouflage, thermal energy management, biomedical science, and many other IR-related technological fields. Herein, an up-to-date review is provided on the recent advancements of bioinspired IR adaptive materials and their promising applications. First an overview of IR adaptation in nature and advanced artificial IR technologies is presented. Recent endeavors are then introduced toward developing bioinspired adaptive materials for IR camouflage and IR radiative cooling. According to the Stefan-Boltzmann law, IR camouflage can be realized by either emissivity engineering or thermal cloaks. IR radiative cooling can maximize the thermal radiation of an object through an IR atmospheric transparency window, and thus holds great potential for use in energy-efficient green buildings and smart personal thermal management systems. Recent advances in bioinspired adaptive materials for emerging near-IR (NIR) applications are also discussed, including NIR-triggered biological technologies, NIR light-fueled soft robotics, and NIR light-driven supramolecular nanosystems. This review concludes with a perspective on the challenges and opportunities for the future development of bioinspired IR adaptive materials.