Thermally adaptive textile inspired by morpho butterfly for all-season comfort and visible aesthetics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bio-inspired textile that dynamically adjusts its thermal and visual properties, enabling all-season comfort through autonomous switching between heating and cooling modes while maintaining vibrant colors.

Contribution

It presents a novel textile combining thermochromic layers with photonic crystals, inspired by butterflies, to achieve adaptive thermal regulation and vivid aesthetics.

Findings

Achieves 3-4°C surface temperature reduction in summer

Maintains high-saturation colors during operation

Demonstrates effective outdoor temperature regulation

Abstract

A longstanding challenge in personal thermal management has been transitioning from static, appearance-limited passive radiative cooling (PDRC) materials to systems that are both dynamically adaptive and visually versatile. The central hurdle remains the inherent compromise between color saturation and cooling power. Inspired by organisms such as butterflies, which decouple structural color from thermal function, we present a smart textile that seamlessly merges a dynamic thermochromic layer with static photonic crystals (PCs). This design enables the solar reflectance to be autonomously switched-from approximately 0.6 in the colored state for heating to about 0.9 in the high-reflectance state for cooling. Consequently, outdoor experiments validated substantial temperature regulation: the fabric achieves a surface temperature reduction of 3-4 {\deg}C in summer and a heating difference of <1 {\deg}C in winter compared to commercial reference materials, all while maintaining high-saturation colors. This dual-mode operation offers a viable pathway for achieving adaptive, aesthetic, and energy-free thermal comfort.