Prototype jacket proves wearable thermal camouflage

The prototype jacket - made with graphene and incorporating a microcomputer that controls the amount of thermal radiation emitted by it – is the result of work carried out by London-headquartered clothing brand Vollebak, the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at Manchester University. 

According to Vollebak, the Thermal Camouflage Jacket incorporates 42 patches of graphene which can be individually controlled via microcomputer to emit different levels of thermal radiation, without any change to their temperature. Programming the patches to have the same level of thermal radiation as their surroundings makes them appear ‘invisible’ to infrared cameras.

“The prototype Thermal Camouflage Jacket proves the viability of wearable thermal camouflage for the first time and I can now confidently say that the concept of an invisibility cloak is no longer science fiction,” said Coskun Kocabas, Professor of 2D Device Materials at Manchester University and NGI. “The reason we’ve used graphene in the jacket is because it’s a highly tuneable material, which means that applying energy to it changes how it appears on both the infrared spectrum and the visible spectrum.”