Thermochromic Structural Color Metafabric Enabling Adaptive Thermal Management and Chromatic Display

ABSTRACT 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‐…