Scalable Flexible Hybrid Membranes with Photonic Structures for Daytime Radiative Cooling

Passive radiative cooling technology can cool down an object by reflecting solar light and radiating heat simultaneously. However, photonic radiators generally require stringent and nanoscale‐precision fabrication, which greatly restricts mass production and renders them less attractive for large‐ar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced functional materials 2020-01, Vol.30 (5), p.n/a
Main Authors: Wang, Xin, Liu, Xianghui, Li, Zhenyang, Zhang, Haiwen, Yang, Zhiwei, Zhou, Han, Fan, Tongxiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooling
Daytime
electrospinning
flexible membranes
Irradiance
Mass production
Materials science
Membranes
Microspheres
photonic structures
Photonics
Polyvinylidene fluorides
Porosity
radiative cooling
Radiators
Silicon dioxide
Temperature
Tetraethyl orthosilicate
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Passive radiative cooling technology can cool down an object by reflecting solar light and radiating heat simultaneously. However, photonic radiators generally require stringent and nanoscale‐precision fabrication, which greatly restricts mass production and renders them less attractive for large‐area applications. A simple, inexpensive, and scalable electrospinning method is demonstrated for fabricating a high‐performance flexible hybrid membrane radiator (FHMR) that consists of polyvinylidene fluoride/tetraethyl orthosilicate fibers with numerous nanopores inside and SiO2 microspheres randomly distributed across its surface. Even without silver back‐coating, a 300 µm thick FHMR has an average infrared emissivity >0.96 and reflects ≈97% of solar irradiance. Moreover, it exhibits great flexibility and superior strength. The daytime cooling performance this device is experimentally demonstrated with an average radiative cooling power of 61 W m−2 and a temperature decrease up to 6 °C under a peak solar intensity of 1000 W m−2. This performance is comparable to those of state‐of‐the‐art devices. Fabricated by a simple, inexpensive, and scalable electrospinning‐based method, a flexible hybrid membrane radiator with photonic structures has an average infrared emissivity >0.96 and reflects ≈97% of solar irradiance, with an average radiative cooling power of 61 W m−2 and a temperature decrease up to 6 °C under direct sunlight. The performance is comparable to that of state‐of‐the‐art devices.
ISSN:1616-301X
1616-3028
DOI:10.1002/adfm.201907562