Energy-saving cooling materials with strong operability are desirable for sustainable thermal management. Inspired by the cooperative thermo-optical effect in the fur of a polar bear, we develop a flexible, superhydrophobic, and reusable cooling "skin" by laminating a poly(dimethylsiloxane) film with a highly scattering polyethylene aerogel. Owing to its high porosity (97.9%) and tailored pore size of 3.8 +/- 1.4 mu m, it can achieve superior solar reflectance ((R) over bar (sun) similar to 0.96) and high transparency to irradiated thermal energy ((tau) over bar (PE,MIR) similar to 0.8) at a thickness of 2.7 mm. Combined with the low thermal conductivity (0.032 W m(-1) K-1) of the aerogel, the cooling skin exerts midday sub-ambient temperature drops of 5-6 degrees C in a metropolitan environment, with an estimated limit of 14 degrees C under ideal service conditions. Our generalized bilayer approach can be easily applied to different types of emitters, bridging the gap between night-time and daytime radiative cooling and paving the way for more cost-effective and scalable cooling materials.

Bioinspired "Skin" with Cooperative Thermo-Optical Effect for Daytime Radiative Cooling / Yang, Meng; Zou, Weizhi; Guo, Jing; Qian, Zhenchao; Luo, Heng; Yang, Shijia; Zhao, Ning; Pattelli, Lorenzo; Xu, Jian; Wiersma, Diederik S. - In: ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES. - ISSN 1944-8244. - 12:22(2020), pp. 25286-25293. [10.1021/acsami.0c03897]

Bioinspired "Skin" with Cooperative Thermo-Optical Effect for Daytime Radiative Cooling

Pattelli, Lorenzo
;
Wiersma, Diederik S
2020

Abstract

Energy-saving cooling materials with strong operability are desirable for sustainable thermal management. Inspired by the cooperative thermo-optical effect in the fur of a polar bear, we develop a flexible, superhydrophobic, and reusable cooling "skin" by laminating a poly(dimethylsiloxane) film with a highly scattering polyethylene aerogel. Owing to its high porosity (97.9%) and tailored pore size of 3.8 +/- 1.4 mu m, it can achieve superior solar reflectance ((R) over bar (sun) similar to 0.96) and high transparency to irradiated thermal energy ((tau) over bar (PE,MIR) similar to 0.8) at a thickness of 2.7 mm. Combined with the low thermal conductivity (0.032 W m(-1) K-1) of the aerogel, the cooling skin exerts midday sub-ambient temperature drops of 5-6 degrees C in a metropolitan environment, with an estimated limit of 14 degrees C under ideal service conditions. Our generalized bilayer approach can be easily applied to different types of emitters, bridging the gap between night-time and daytime radiative cooling and paving the way for more cost-effective and scalable cooling materials.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11696/62952
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