Multifunctional Membrane for Thermal Management Applications

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2021-04, Vol.13 (16), p.19301-19311
• Main Authors: Song, Ying-Nan, Lei, Mao-Qin, Han, Dong-Lin, Huang, Yu-Chuan, Wang, Shuai-Peng, Shi, Jian-Yang, Li, Yue, Xu, Ling, Lei, Jun, Li, Zhong-Ming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applications of Polymer, Composite, and Coating Materials
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c02667

Space cooling and heating consume a large proportion of global energy, so passive thermal management materials (i.e., without energy input), especially dual-mode materials including cooling and heating bifunctions, are becoming more and more attractive in many areas. Herein, a function-switchable Janus membrane between cooling and heating consisting of a multilayer structure of polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiber/zinc oxide nanosheet/carbon nanotube/Ag nanowire/polydimethylsiloxane was fabricated for comprehensive thermal management applications. In the cooling mode, the high thermal radiation emissivity (89.2%) and sunlight reflectivity (90.6%) of the Janus membrane resulted in huge temperature drops of 8.2–12.6, 9.0–14.0, and 10.9 °C for a substrate, a closed space, and a semiclosed space, respectively. When switching to the heating mode, temperature rises of 3.8–4.6, 4.0–4.8, and 12.5 °C for the substrate, closed space, and semiclosed space, respectively, were achieved owing to the high thermal radiation reflectivity (89.5%) and sunlight absorptivity (74.1%) of the membrane. Besides, the Janus membrane has outstanding comprehensive properties of the membrane, including infrared camouflaging/disguising, electromagnetic shielding (53.1 dB), solvent tolerance, waterproof properties, and high flexibility, which endow the membrane with promising application prospects.