Tunable Infrared Emissivity in Multilayer Graphene by Ionic Liquid Intercalation

Controllably tuned infrared emissivity has attracted great interest for potential application in adaptive thermal camouflage. In this work, we report a flexible multilayer graphene based infrared device on a porous polyethylene membrane, where the infrared emissivity could be tuned by ionic liquid intercalation. The Fermi level of surface multilayer graphene shifts to a high energy level through ionic liquid intercalation, which blocks electronic transition below the Fermi level. Thus, the optical absorptivity/emissivity of graphene could be controlled by intercalation. Experimentally, the infrared emissivity of surface graphene was found to be tuned from 0.57 to 0.41 after ionic liquid intercalation. Meanwhile, the relative reflectivity Rv/R0 of surface graphene increased from 1.0 to 1.15. The strong fluorescence background of Raman spectra, the upshift of the G peak (~23 cm−1), and the decrease of sheet resistance confirmed the successful intercalation of ionic liquid into the graphene layers. This intercalation control of the infrared emissivity of graphene in this work displays a new way of building an effective thermal camouflage system.