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Scalable and sustainable hierarchical-morphology coatings for passive daytime radiative cooling

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Abstract

Passive daytime radiative-cooling materials (characterized by a high solar reflectance and thermal emittance) exhibit a cooling effect under direct sunlight with zero energy consumption, thereby decreasing the demand for air conditioning. Although various well-designed radiative-cooling materials have been reported to date, their syntheses are environmentally harmful and unsuitable for large-scale operation (as they involve complicated, high-cost, or solution-processed methods). In this study, a hierarchical-morphology coating for large-scale radiative-cooling applications was constructed by a one-step, inexpensive, solution-free, and environmentally friendly strategy. The hierarchical morphology (comprising nanospheres and micropores randomly dispersed throughout a polymer matrix) was fabricated through simple mechanical stirring (without the use of templates); no solvents or by-products were produced during the manufacturing process. The optimal coating showed high emissivity (95.1%) in the atmospheric-window band, strong solar reflectivity (94.0%), and a cooling power of 62.94 W m−2 (according to field tests). Moreover, covering the roof of a model with the as-prepared hierarchical-morphology coating reduced the average roof temperature by 11.5 ℃ (according to outdoor tests). According to simulations, the coating enabled annual cooling-energy-consumption savings in the range of 14.5–41.2% for typical buildings located in different climatic regions, indicating high potential as an energy-saving building-envelope material.

Graphical Abstract

A one-step, scalable and sustainable strategy has been developed to fabricate hierarchical-morphology coatings for passive daytime radiative cooling.

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Data availability

All data supporting the findings of this study are available in this article and Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the China-Portugal Joint Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Conservation Science, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Sichuan Provincial Youth Scientific and Technological Innovation Research Team on Ecological Adaptability of Plateau Architecture (Grant No. 2022JDTD0008) and the Southwest Minzu University Research Startup Funds (Grant No. 16011221040).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, PR China

    Shuliang Li, Guomin Du, Xiaoliang Wang, Xinyi Dong, Ting Huang, Dingyuan Hu, Tao Ren & Xianmin Mai

  2. School of Chemistry and Environment, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, 610041, PR China

    Min Pan, Xue Li & Hong Chen

Authors
  1. Shuliang Li
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  2. Guomin Du
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  3. Min Pan
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  10. Hong Chen
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  11. Xianmin Mai
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Contributions

Shuliang Li: conceptualization, methodology, writing-reviewing and editing; Guomin Du: performing the experiments; Min Pan: data collection and analysis; Xiaoliang Wang: programming, simulation development; Xinyi Dong: visualization/data presentation; Ting Huang: data curation; Dingyuan Hu: simulation validation; Tao Ren: data/evidence collection; Xue Li: conducting a research and investigation process; Hong Chen: provision of reagents, materials, and instrumentation; Xianmin Mai: supervision, project administration, management and coordination. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xianmin Mai.

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Li, S., Du, G., Pan, M. et al. Scalable and sustainable hierarchical-morphology coatings for passive daytime radiative cooling. Adv Compos Hybrid Mater 7, 15 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-023-00819-w

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