The thermal emissive behavior of solid surfaces is of prime importance for defense applications, particularly for infrared (IR) camouflage purposes, where reduced emissivity minimizes thermal contrast and lowers detectability by surveillance systems. Low‐emissivity surfaces are commonly achieved using coatings based on metals, semiconductors, or polymer composites. Among these, polymer‐based systems offer advantages such as low density, mechanical flexibility, and tunable functional properties. In this study, aluminum nanoparticles were synthesized via a chemical reduction method and characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) to confirm their morphology and phase composition. Silicone‐based composites containing varying aluminum nanoparticle loadings (0–10 wt%) were fabricated using an industrially relevant melt‐blending approach. To assess the influence of aluminum particle morphology, comparable composites incorporating commercially procured flaky aluminum particles in silicone were also prepared. The composites were systematically evaluated for their microstructure, dielectric properties, thermal stability, and IR emissivity. Results indicate that increasing aluminum content reduces IR emissivity from 0.85 to 0.68 (~15%), while simultaneously enhancing the dielectric constant. Thermal analysis revealed maximum degradation temperatures between 530 and 564°C, demonstrating good thermal stability of composites. Additionally, filler morphology was found to significantly influence emissive behavior, with spherical nanoparticle‐filled composites exhibiting higher emissivity compared to flake‐filled systems. These findings provide insight into the structure–property relationships governing emissivity control for silicone‐based composites intended for advanced IR camouflage and thermal management applications.
J et al. (Thu,) studied this question.