Context : The physics of galaxy clusters has proven to be influenced by several processes connected with their galactic component which pollutes the intracluster medium ( ICM ) with metals , stars and dust .
However , it is not clear whether the presence of diffuse dust can play a role in clusters physics since a characterisation of the infrared ( IR ) properties of galaxy clusters is very challenging and yet to be completely achieved .

Aims : In our study we focus on the recent work of Giard et al .
( 2008 ) who performed a stacking analysis of the IRAS data in the direction of several thousands of galaxy clusters , providing a statistical characterisation of their IR luminosity and redshift evolution .
We model the IR properties of the galactic population of the SDSS-maxBCG clusters ( 0.1 < z < 0.3 ) in order to check if it accounts for the entire observed signal and to constrain the possible presence of other components , like dust in the ICM .

Methods : Starting from the optical properties of the galaxies of the SDSS-maxBCG clusters , we estimate their emission in the 60 and 100 \mu m IRAS bands making use of modeled spectral energy distributions of different spectral types ( E/S0 , Sa , Sb , Sc and starburst ) .
We also consider the evolution of the galactic population/luminosity with redshift .

Results : The total galactic emission , which is dominated by the contribution of star-forming late-type galaxies , is consistent with the observed signal .
In fact , our galactic emission model slightly overestimates the observed fluxes , with the excess being concentrated in low-redshift clusters ( z \lesssim 0.17 ) .

Conclusions : Our results indicate that , if present , the IR emission from intracluster dust must be very small compared to the one associated to the galaxy members .
This translates into an upper limit on the dust-to-gas mass ratio in the ICM of Z _ { d } \lesssim 5 \times 10 ^ { -5 } .
The excess in luminosity obtained at low redshift constitutes an indication that the cluster environment is driving a process of star-formation quenching in its galaxy members .