Hierarchical design and scalable production of radiative cooling film featuring multispectral camouflage

Various outdoor scenarios demand both temperature control and self-protection from environment, which are often contradictory from the optical perspective, thus inspiring many material designs on multispectral camouflage and radiative cooling performance. However, these methods on the basis of one-dimensional photonic crystals or meta-surfaces always rely on stringent fabrication and may result in strong angular dependence. Here, we demonstrate an aluminum-polyamide 66 metal-based polymer bilayer thin film through hierarchical design at both the molecular and microscale levels and scalable production, enabling camouflage in infrared (3-5 μm and 8-14 μm) and laser (10.6 μm) bands with efficient radiative cooling in the non-atmospheric window (5-8 μm and 14-20 μm) while possessing weak angular dependence between −60° to 60°. Furthermore, our films can be tailored with specific emissivity and color to balance camouflage and cooling across diverse environments. This work provides a scalable, low-cost radiative cooling polymer film, advancing practical solutions for multispectral camouflage. Developing camouflaging materials, which can regulate temperatures, is challenging due to contradicting optical properties. Here the authors design an aluminum-polymer which balancing camouflaging and radiative cooling properties across diverse environments.