Thermochromic Structural Color Metafabric Enabling Adaptive Thermal Management and Chromatic Display.

Environmentally adaptive thermoregulation with visually appealing coloration is a critical requirement for smart textiles. Black/white color switching has been proposed to manipulate solar energy for fulfilling outdoor heating/cooling demands, but it optically conflicts with conventional coloration methods depending on chemical dyes to selectively absorb visible wavelengths. Here, we create a thermochromic structural color metafabric (TSCM) that undercores dynamic light manipulation across the visible, solar, and mid-infrared bands, achieving unmet textile intelligence of temperature self-regulation and multi-chromatic display. TSCM consists of a poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) nanofiber substrate, a thermochromic microcapsule (TCM) layer, and an overlying photonic crystal coating. In low-temperature environments, the photonic crystal selectively reflects bandgap-visible wavelengths while the TCM absorbs most other visible light, enabling high-saturation structural color and solar heating. At high temperatures, TCM transitions to a white, broadband reflective state, making the structural color fade; collaborating with the bottom-layer mid-infrared emissive nanofibers, the system achieves efficient radiative cooling. Under 1 kW m-2 solar irradiation, the metafabric maintains 35°C-40°C despite ambient variations from 15°C to 30°C, while exhibiting chromatic patterns. TSCM nanophotonic engineering harmonizes dynamic, reversible light manipulation across the visible to mid-infrared spectra, offering a theoretical and technological pathway toward next-generation intelligent, aesthetically thermal management metafabrics.