Leaf‐Inspired Biomimetic Porous Hydrogels for Multi‐Band Camouflage

Abstract

With the development of visible, hyperspectral, and thermal‐infrared multi‐band reconnaissance technologies, achieving an ideal camouflage in the jungle environment remains a major challenge. Inspired by green leaves, this work designs and prepares a flame‐retardant and robust biomimetic porous hydrogel (BPH), which not only mimics the color and visible‐near‐infrared reflectance spectral characteristics of natural leaves, but also simulates the moisture absorption‐transpiration behavior for thermal management. The color difference between BPH and leaf is only 1.87, making them barely distinguishable by naked eyes. Importantly, BPH exhibits a visible‐near infrared reflectance spectrum similar to that of natural leaf, with the spectral correlation coefficient and cosine similarity as high as 0.940 and 0.958, respectively. In addition, the radiative temperature difference between BPH and surrounding leaves does not exceed 2°C. Furthermore, BPH could serve as a coating to endow conventional fabrics with superior visible, hyperspectral, and thermal infrared camouflage performance in outdoor jungle environments, thereby acting as camouflage barriers such as tents and camouflage nets. This work provides a novel strategy for the design and preparation of visible, hyperspectral, and thermal infrared camouflage materials, aiming to address the challenge of multi‐band camouflage compatibility and enhance the battlefield survivability of targets.