Application of graphene in coating silk fibril for tunable infrared absorption

Lihong Shi, Yang Huang, Lei Gao, Yuan Cheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Infrared radiation is a primary mechanism for heat exchange between the human body and the environment. In the framework of Mie scattering theory, we investigate the infrared absorption of a graphene-coated silk composite. We found that by coating graphene, the infrared absorption efficiency of silk fibrils is five orders larger than that without graphene coating. The observed significant enhancement in infrared absorption arises from the electromagnetic coupling between graphene and the silk. The effects of graphene's chemical potential and silk fibril diameter are also explored. Our results open a pathway to develop biological nanocomposites with tunable optical and thermal properties.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)592-597
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Electronic Materials
Volume50
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Graphene
  • infrared absorption
  • Mie scattering theory
  • silk fibril

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