Kevlar nanofibrous aerogel-based 3-layer tandem cloak enables highly efficient and long-lasting infrared stealth

• Three types of Kevlar aerogel-based thermal management layers were fabricated. • An infrared stealth tandem cloak was constructed with these aerogel-based layers. • This cloak makes long-term infrared stealth under heating and sunshining possible. The control of thermal radiation features of objects for the purpose of infrared stealth has aroused extensive research interests in recent years, however, long-term and highly efficient infrared stealth for hot object under sunlight is still a giant challenge. Herein, a Kevlar nanofibrous aerogel-based 3-layer tandem cloak for long-term restraining of the thermal emission was proposed. The top layer was fabricated by magnetron sputtering silver (Ag) on the upper side of Kevlar nanofibrous aerogel film (Ag|KNA), demonstrating high thermal resistance (8.68 K·W −1 ), low infrared emissivity (0.12) and high optical reflectivity (0.87). The middle layer was realized by incorporating of phase change paraffin wax (PW) into KNA film (KNA/PW), showing phase change enthalpy of 162 J·g −1 . The bottom layer was fabricated by sputtering Ag on the lower patterned side of KNA film (PKNA|Ag), illustrating low infrared transmittance (close to zero), high thermal reflectivity (0.94) and high thermal resistance (10.42 K·W −1 ). Then flexible tandem cloak was constructed via stacking these aerogel-based top, middle and bottom layers in sequence, showing long-term (up to 12 h), high-efficiency (radiation temperature difference less than 1 °C) hiding of thermo-model targets under heating and sunshining simultaneously. This work provides a promising strategy for designing more practical tandem cloak for infrared stealth applications.