British scientists reveal shocking invention: Invisibility cloak

A Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak will soon be available on the market, according to a joint research team between Vollebak and the University of Manchester in the UK.

According to the Daily Mail , this invisibility cloak is a thermal camouflage cloak. It cannot make you invisible in daylight, but it can make you invisible to the "magic eye" of infrared thermal sensor cameras.

"It's a computer-programmable cloak that brings us one step closer to turning invisibility cloaks from science fiction into reality," Vollebak said in a statement , according to the Daily Mail .

The invisibility cloak with several panels is being adjusted to cool and become invisible to thermal cameras - (Image cut from Vollebak's clip)

The team, working in collaboration with the University of Manchester, expect to have a final product on the shelves within five to 10 years.

The prototype of this "heat camouflage jacket" consists of 42 pieces of graphene, each piece consisting of 100 layers of graphene. Graphene is a thin flat sheet made of a single layer of carbon atoms bonded together to form a honeycomb crystal lattice. So each piece of this jacket will be a strong structure of 100 layers of graphene, but still light enough - 100 atomic layers are actually very thin.

These patches can be individually controlled by a system of gold and copper wires running to each graphene sheet. The voltage squeezes ions between the graphene layers – and the more ions are pushed, the less heat radiation is emitted and the colder it looks, and the more invisible it is to heat-seeking devices.

If all the panels are set to cold (blue), the wearer will be invisible to infrared heat sensors - (Photo: Vollebak)

According to scientists, this invention once again proves the magic of graphene material , which not only promises to revolutionize semiconductor and sensor technology but can also lead to breakthroughs in fundamental quantum physics research.

Graphene is expected to one day be used to make transparent conductive materials, biomedical sensors and even the ultra-light, yet strong, aircraft of the future. Despite its fragility, carbon nanotubes - graphene - are actually 200 times stronger than structural steel.