Laminated self-healing thermochromic gel for visualizing thermal management

• • The DEE-DA gel achieves a self-healing efficiency of 98.8% at 30 °C, enabling autonomous repair of mechanical damage and extending operational lifetime in dynamic thermal management applications. • • A light modulation efficiency of 85.45% is demonstrated, indicating superior tunability of optical transmittance for adaptive solar regulation in smart windows. • • The gel exhibits a thermal modulation efficiency of 66.7% over a temperature range of 10–60 °C, providing dual-mode (heating and cooling) thermal management capability. • • In cryogenic testing, the gel-integrated assembly reduces the cooling rate of water to 0.22 °C/min versus 0.29 °C/min for glass, and delays thermal equilibrium by 15 minutes, demonstrating effective suppression of convective heat transfer and energy loss.