Functionally integrated hyperelastic aerogels: plant-inspired exoskeleton enhancement strategy for intelligently tunable electromagnetic wave absorption

Abstract With the rapid development of electronic communication technology, common absorbers for fixed-band communication or stealth are difficult to meet diversified requirements. Inspired by the willow branch structure in nature, we develop a hyperelastic composite aerogel using an exoskeleton enhancement strategy. By polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-encapsulating carbonized aramid nanofibers within the aerogel, 1000 cycles of compression and up to 109,900% improvement in compressive strength are achieved. Through adjusting the coating thickness of PDMS, a minimum reflection loss of − 46.22 dB and an effective absorption bandwidth of 6.88 GHz can be obtained. At the same time, the absorption band of the composite aerogel can be dynamically moved from C band to Ku band by adjusting the compressive strain, and the “On-Off” mode can be switched. In addition, its adjustable radar stealth performance is further demonstrated by using power loss density and radar cross section simulation. Particularly, this composite aerogel exhibits good thermal management and self-cleaning functions, which provide new insights for the development of intelligent electromagnetic equipment in the military field.