An environmentally friendly chitosan-derived VO2/carbon aerogel for radar infrared compatible stealth

With the advancements in military detection technology, stealth materials that only operate in a single frequency band are no longer efficient in dealing with detection weapon interference. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop multifunctional material to achieve multi-band compatible stealth. In this study, a composite porous aerogel was synthesized utilizing a chitosan-derived carbon aerogel as the scaffold loaded with VO2 (VO2/CA), which demonstrated exceptional radar/infrared compatible stealth performance. Under the action of loss mechanisms conductivity loss, dipole polarization and interface polarization, the composite material can reach the minimum RL of −52.0 dB at a thickness of 2.4 mm, and the EAB at 1.6 mm is 5.2 GHz, covering almost the whole Ku band. Meantime, VO2/CA achieves excellent thermal stealth characteristic. In terms of infrared stealth, after the bottom is heated to 120 °C for 180 s, the surface temperature of the sample is only 2.6 °C. This work provides a feasible idea and scheme for the research of radar infrared stealth compatibility materials.