In response to the rapid development of highly integrated multifunctional electronic devices, developing advanced multifunctional composite phase change materials (PCMs) that integrate thermal management, solar-thermal conversion and microwave absorption has become increasingly essential. Herein, we propose a bionical strategy to design neural network-like (carbon nanofiber) CNF@Co/C aerogels by growing ZIF-67 in situ on bacterial cellulose (BC) and subsequent calcination strategies. After the encapsulation of thermal storage unit (paraffin wax, PW), the obtained multifunctional composite PCMs (PW-CNF@Co/C aerogel) are composed of “soma” (Co/C polyhedra), “axon” (porous CNF) and thermal storage unit (PW). Importantly, the composite PCMs show a high solar-thermal conversion efficiency of 95.27% benefiting from the synergism of “soma” with strong local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect and “axon” with enhanced photon transmission path. More attractively, the composite PCMs also display good microwave absorption capacity with a minimum reflection loss (RL) of -26.8 dB at 10.91 GHz owing to the synergy of magnetic and dielectric components along with abundant polarization and multiple reflections. Our developed functionally integrated composite PCMs provide a prospective application of highly integrated and miniaturized electronic devices in complex and changeable outdoor environments.

The practicality of conventional solid–liquid phase change materials (PCMs) is adversely restricted by liquid phase leakage, large volume expansion, shape instability, and severe corrosion in high-temperature thermal management systems. This highlight presents the latest development to resolve these challenges by designing ultrahigh-performance high-temperature Ni-Mn-Ti solid–solid PCMs using martensitic phase transition strategy, offering a new paradigm to develop advanced wide-temperature high-temperature metallic solid–solid phase change thermal storage materials.