On the 12th, the reporter learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the team of academician Yu Shuhong of the university proposed a design strategy of dual protective materials, designed and prepared a functional carbon spring (FCS) aerogel material with both dynamic electromagnetic wave absorption performance and thermal protection. The relevant research results were recently published in the international academic journal Advanced Materials. Electromagnetic wave pollution and thermal damage pose a serious threat to precision instruments, particularly in the aerospace industry. Functional aerogel provides a promising solution because of its characteristics of absorbing electromagnetic waves and isolating heat. However, optimizing these two characteristics often faces a contradiction that has been overlooked in previous research: the thermal protection effect is positively correlated with material thickness, while electromagnetic wave absorption can only achieve optimal results at specific thicknesses. Therefore, current research is difficult to achieve a balance between electromagnetic wave absorption efficiency and thermal protection effect simultaneously. In response to the key conflict between electromagnetic wave absorption and thermal protection performance optimization, the FCS material prepared by the research team has a unique long-range layered multi arch microstructure that mimics the arch of the foot, making its electromagnetic wave absorption performance adjustable and possessing excellent thermal protection capabilities. By adjusting the compression strain from 0% to 50%, the adjustable effective absorption bandwidth of the material can reach 13.4 GHz, covering 84% of the measured spectrum. It is worth noting that at 75% strain, the absorption bandwidth drops to 0 GHz, demonstrating a novel absorption "on-off" switching ability. Its ultra-low vertical thermal conductivity and anisotropic thermal conduction mechanism of "high in-plane thermal conductivity and low out of plane thermal conductivity" endow FCS with excellent thermal protection effect. Numerical simulation shows that FCS is superior to common honeycomb structure and isotropic porous aerogel in thermal protection. In addition, researchers have established a database of "electromagnetic thermal" dual protection materials, visually demonstrating the superiority of this material and design strategies. The researchers said that this research achievement not only clarified the conflict limiting the development of multifunctional aerogel materials with superior electromagnetic wave absorption and thermal protection characteristics, but also further proposed a new design paradigm. The thermal insulation material database and the "electromagnetic thermal" dual protection material database proposed by it also provide standards for intuitive performance comparison. (New Society)