Nuclear engineering

Physics

Meteorology

Common emitter

Air conditioning

Optics

Engineering

Active cooling

Radiative cooling

Materials science

Thermal

Cooling load

Passive cooling

Environmental science

Optoelectronics

Radiative transfer

Water cooling

Mechanical engineering

Nature Sustainability

Radiative cooling is a passive cooling strategy with zero consumption of electricity that can be used to radiate heat from buildings to reduce air-conditioning requirements. Although this technology can work well during optimal atmospheric conditions at night, it is essential to achieve efficient cooling during the daytime when peak cooling demand actually occurs. Here we report an inexpensive planar polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/metal thermal emitter thin film structure, which was fabricated using a fast solution coating process that is scalable for large-area manufacturing. By performing tests under different environmental conditions, temperature reductions of 9.5 °C and 11.0 °C were demonstrated in the laboratory and an outside environment, respectively, with an average cooling power of ~120 W m–2 for the thin film thermal emitter. In addition, a spectral-selective structure was designed and implemented to suppress the solar input and control the divergence of the thermal emission beam. This enhanced the directionality of the thermal emissions, so the emitter’s cooling performance was less dependent on the surrounding environment. Outside experiments were performed in Buffalo, New York, realizing continuous all-day cooling of ~2–9 °C on a typical clear sunny day at Northern United States latitudes. This practical strategy that cools without electricity input could have a significant impact on global energy consumption. Radiative cooling can reduce air-conditioning requirements. In this study, the authors demonstrated an inexpensive thermal emitter that provided continuous daytime cooling up to 9 °C outdoors on a clear, sunny New York day.

A polydimethylsiloxane-coated metal structure for all-day radiative cooling