Emerging Materials and Strategies for Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling

In recent decades, the growing demands for energy saving and accompanying heat mitigation concerns, together with the vital goal for carbon neutrality, have drawn human attention to the zero-energy-consumption cooling technique. Recent breakthroughs in passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) might be a potent approach to combat the energy crisis and environmental challenges by directly dissipating ambient heat from the Earth to the cold outer space instead of only moving the heat across the Earth's surface. Despite significant progress in cooling mechanisms, materials design, and application exploration, PDRC faces potential functionalization, durability, and commercialization challenges. Herein, emerging materials and rational strategies for PDRC devices are reviewed. First, the fundamental physics and thermodynamic concepts of PDRC are examined, followed by a discussion on several categories of PDRC devices developed to date according to their implementation mechanism and material properties. Emerging strategies for performance enhancement and specific functions of PDRC are discussed in detail. Potential applications and possible directions for designing next-generation high-efficiency PDRC are also discussed. It is hoped that this review will contribute to exciting advances in PDRC and aid its potential applications in various fields.     

A UV-Reflective Organic–Inorganic Tandem Structure for Efficient and Durable Daytime Radiative Cooling in Harsh Climates

Radiative cooling shows great promise in eco-friendly space cooling due to its zero-energy consumption. For subambient cooling in hot humid subtropical/tropical climates, achieving ultrahigh solar reflectance (≥96%), durable ultraviolet (UV) resistance, and surface superhydrophobicity simultaneously is critical, which, however, is challenging for most state-of-the-art scalable polymer-based coolers. Here an organic–inorganic tandem structure is reported to address this challenge, which comprises a bottom high-refractive-index polyethersulfone (PES) cooling layer with bimodal honeycomb pores, an alumina (Al₂O₃) nanoparticle UV reflecting layer with superhydrophobicity, and a middle UV absorption layer of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles, thus providing thorough protection from UV and self-cleaning capability together with outstanding cooling performance. The PES-TiO₂-Al₂O₃ cooler demonstrates a record-high solar reflectance of over 0.97 and high mid-infrared emissivity of 0.92, which can maintain their optical properties intact even after equivalent 280-day UV exposure despite the UV-sensitivity of PES. This cooler achieves a subambient cooling temperature up to 3 °C at summer noontime and 5 °C at autumn noontime without solar shading or convection cover in a subtropical coastal city, Hong Kong. This tandem structure can be extended to other polymer-based designs, offering a UV-resist but reliable radiative cooling solution in hot humid climates.     

A Janus Textile Capable of Radiative Subambient Cooling and Warming for Multi-Scenario Personal Thermal Management

Textiles with radiative cooling/warming capabilities provide a green and effective solution to personal thermal comfort in different climate scenarios. However, developing multiple-mode textiles for wearing in changing climates with large temperature variation remains a challenge. Here a Janus textile is reported, comprising a polyethersulfone (PES)-Al₂O₃ cooling layer optically coupled with a Ti₃C₂T_x warming layer, which can realize sub-ambient radiative cooling, solar warming, and active Joule heating. Owing to the intrinsically high refractive index of PES and the rational design of the fiber topology, the nanocomposite PES textile features a record high solar reflectance of 0.97. Accompanied by an infrared (IR) emittance of 0.91 in the atmospheric window, sub-ambient cooling of 0.5–2.5 °C is achieved near noontime in humid summer under ≈1000 W m⁻² solar irradiation in Hong Kong. The simulated skin covered with the textile is ≈10 °C cooler than that with white cotton. The Ti₃C₂T_x layer provides a high solar-thermal efficiency of ≈80% and a Joule heating flux of 66 W m⁻² at 2 V and 15 °C due to its excellent spectral selectivity and electrical conductivity. The switchable multiple working modes enable effective and adaptive personal thermal management in changing environments.     

Scalable Bacterial Cellulose-Based Radiative Cooling Materials with Switchable Transparency for Thermal Management and Enhanced Solar Energy Harvesting

Radiative cooling materials that can dynamically control solar transmittance and emit thermal radiation into cold outer space are critical for smart thermal management and sustainable energy-efficient buildings. This work reports the judicious design and scalable fabrication of biosynthetic bacterial cellulose (BC)-based radiative cooling (Bio-RC) materials with switchable solar transmittance, which are developed by entangling silica microspheres with continuously secreted cellulose nanofibers during in situ cultivation. Theresulting film shows a high solar reflection (95.3%) that can be facilely switched between an opaque state and a transparent state upon wetting. Interestingly, the Bio-RC film exhibits a high mid-infrared emissivity (93.4%) and an average sub-ambient temperature drop of ≈3.7 °C at noon. When integrating with a commercially available semi-transparent solar cell, the switchable solar transmittance of Bio-RC film enables an enhancement of solar power conversion efficiency (opaque state: 0.92%, transparent state: 0.57%, bare solar cell: 0.33%). As a proof-of-concept illustration, an energy-efficient model house with its roof built with Bio-RC-integrated semi-transparent solar cell is demonstrated. This research can shine new light on the design and emerging applications of advanced radiative cooling materials.     

Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/环氧树脂柔性复合热电厚膜的制备及其面内制冷性能

利用丝网印刷法在聚酰亚胺基板上制备了Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃/环氧树脂柔性复合热电厚膜, 通过优化Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃粉末含量提高了其电输运性能。复合厚膜在300 K时的最优功率因子达到1.12 mW·m ^-1·K ^-2, 较前期报道的数值提高了33%。抗弯测试表明复合厚膜的电阻在弯曲半径大于20 mm时基本不变, 在弯曲半径为20 mm, 弯曲次数小于3000次时, 仅有轻微增大, 说明其在柔性热电器件领域具有应用潜力。红外热成像技术显示, 在工作电流为0.01 A到0.05 A时, 复合厚膜热电臂两端可以形成4.2 ℃到7.8 ℃的温差, 表明了其在面内制冷领域应用的可能性。     

Flexible and Tough Poly(lactic acid) Films for Packaging Applications: Property and Processability Improvement by Effective Reactive Blending

This study demonstrates a practical means to overcome inherent brittleness problem of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and make PLA feasible as packaging material. PLA with suitable processability is utterly required for package manufacturers, where flexible, tough PLA film is essential for packers and end users. Highly flexible PLA films with 60‐fold increase in elongation at break (Eb) over that of the neat PLA were successfully produced by integrating effective reactive blending and economical film blowing process. The ‘two‐step’ blending was used to prepare PLA compound; poly(butylene adipate‐co‐terephthalate) (PBAT – another biodegradable polymer) was first blended with 0.5–1% chain extender (epoxy‐functionalized styrene acrylic copolymer) (ESA), followed by subsequent blending with PLA in twin‐screw extruder. Blown films of reactive blend of PLA/PBAT/ESA (80/20/1) showed impressively high Eb of 250% versus a very low Eb of 4% for the neat PLA. Resulting blown films still possessed high modulus of 2 GPa, yield stress of 50–60 MPa and good toughness of ~100 MPa. Significant enhancement in the film's ductility was attributed to homogeneous blend with developed fine strand‐like structure as a result of effective in situ compatibilization and good interfacial adhesion between the PLA and PBAT. PLA/PBAT/ESA blend also offered improved processability. Resulting films had acceptable haze of ~10% for common packaging, and clearer film close to PLA (≤2%) could be obtained by designing PLA skin layers in multilayer structure. Films of PLA/PBAT/1%ESA exhibit potential as packaging material; their mechanical and optical properties are comparable with or even exceed some existing films used in the market. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Freestanding 1T‐MnxMo1–xS2–ySey and MoFe2S4–zSez Ultrathin Nanosheet‐Structured Electrodes for Highly Efficient Flexible Solid‐State Asymmetric Supercapacitors

Fabrication of hierarchical nanosheet arrays of 1T phase of transition‐metal dichalcogenides is indeed a critical task, but it holds immense potential for energy storage. A single‐step strategy is employed for the fabrication of stable 1T‐Mn_xMo_1–xS_2–ySe_y and MoFe₂S_4–zSe_z hierarchical nanosheet arrays on carbon cloth as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. The flexible asymmetric supercapacitor constructed with these two electrodes exhibits an excellent electrochemical performance (energy density of ≈69 Wh kg^?1 at a power density of 0.985 kW kg^?1) with ultralong cyclic stability of ≈83.5% capacity retention, after 10 000 consecutive cycles. Co‐doping of the metal and nonmetal boosts the charge storage ability of the transition‐metal chalcogenides following enrichment in the metallic 1T phase, improvement in the surface area, and expansion in the interlayer spacing in tandem, which is the key focus of the present study. This study explicitly demonstrates the exponential enhancement of specific capacity of MoS₂ following intercalation and doping of Mn and Se, and Fe₂S₃ following doping of Mo and Se could be an ideal direction for the fabrication of novel energy‐storage materials with high‐energy storage ability.