2020/09/13 by Xiao Xue, Meng Qiu, Yanwen Li +14 · 7 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Building Energy and Comfort Optimization #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #Urban Heat Island Mitigation
paper · doi:10.1002/adma.201906751
openalex publication_date 2020/09/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract Subambient daytime radiative cooling (SDRC) provides a promising electricity‐ and cryogen‐free pathway for global energy‐efficiency. However, current SDRC systems require stringent surface designs, which are neither cost‐effective nor eco‐friendly, to selectively emit thermal radiation to outer space and simultaneously maximize solar reflectance. Here, a generic method is developed to upgrade the conventional building‐coating materials with a peculiar self‐adaptive SDRC effect through combining particle scattering, sunlight‐excited fluorescence, and mid‐infrared broadband radiation. It is also theoretically proved that heat exchange with the sky can eliminate the use of resonant microstructures and noble metal mirrors in conventional SDRC, and also leads to enhanced daytime cooling yet suppressed nighttime overcooling. When exposed to direct sunlight, the upgraded coating over an aluminum plate can achieve 6 °C (7 °C on a scale‐model building) below the ambient temperature under a solar intensity of 744 W m −2 (850 W m −2 ), yielding a cooling power of 84.2 W m −2 . The results pave the way for practical large‐scale applications of high‐performance SDRC for human thermal comfort in buildings.