Tunable Thermochromic Graphene Metamaterials with Iridescent Color

Abstract

Thermochromic materials have been widely applied in energy-efficient buildings, aerospace, textiles, and sensors. Conventional thermochromic materials rely on material phase or structure changes upon thermal stimuli, which only enable a few colors, greatly limiting their applicability. Here, we propose and demonstrate the concept of dynamically tunable thermochromic graphene metamaterials (TGMs), which can achieve continuous color tunability (380-800 nm) with fast (<100 ms) response times. The TGMs are composed of an ultrathin graphene oxide (GO) film on a flexible metal substrate. We demonstrated that external thermal energy can dynamically adjust the water contents in the GO film to manipulate the color of TGMs. An impressive thermochromic sensitivity of 1.11 nm/°C covering a large percentage of the color space has been achieved. Prototype applications for a cup and smartphone have been demonstrated. The reversible TGMs promise great potential for practical applications of temperature sensing in optoelectronic devices, environmental monitoring, and dynamic color modulation.