Tuneable nanocrystal gel offers applications in energy and defence

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A new type of tuneable nanocrystal gel has the potential to be used as thermal camouflage or as a temperature regulator for buildings.

nanocrystal gel
The material in its gelled state (left) and its non-gelled state (right). When the material is heated (right), the chemical bonds between the nanocrystals break and the gel breaks down. When the material is cooled (left), chemical bonds form between the nanocrystals and they organise themselves into a network (the gel). Molecular bonding (top) that controls gelation as a function of temperature is understood using supercomputer simulations (bottom). Credit: Kang, Valenzuela, et al./UT Austin

This the claim of a team from The University of Texas at Austin whose new material can be switched between two different states by changing the temperature. This allows it to work as an optical filter, absorbing different frequencies of light depending on whether it’s in a gelled state or not.

In one possible application, the team said the nanocrystal gel could be used on the outside of buildings to control heating or cooling dynamically. This type of optical filter also has applications for defence, particularly for thermal camouflage.

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