Quantitative infrared spectroscopy of environmentally sensitive and rough materials.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a widely used characterization technique for studying chemical compositions and light-matter interactions in the infrared range. However, it remains challenging to use conventional FTIR equipment to characterize materials that are environmentally sensitive and/or have rough surfaces due to their dynamic response to external stimuli (e.g.

Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile.

The human body absorbs and loses heat largely through infrared radiation centering around a wavelength of 10 micrometers. However, neither our skin nor the textiles that make up clothing are capable of dynamically controlling this optical channel for thermal management. By coating triacetate-cellulose bimorph fibers with a thin layer of carbon nanotubes, we effectively modulated the infrared radiation by more than 35% as the relative humidity of the underlying skin changed.