Scalable Aqueous Processing-Based Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling Coatings

Wenlong Huang, Yijun Chen, Yu Luo, Jyotirmoy Mandal, Wenxi Li, Meijie Chen, Cheng Chia Tsai, Zhongqiang Shan, Nanfang Yu, Yuan Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

121 Scopus citations

Abstract

Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) can realize electricity-free cooling by reflecting sunlight and emitting heat to the cold space. Current PDRC designs often involve costly vacuum processing or a large quantity of harmful organic solvents. Aqueous and paint-like processing is cost-effective and environmentally benign, thereby highly attractive for green manufacturing of PDRC coatings. However, common polymers explored in PDRC are difficult to disperse in water, let alone forming porous structures for efficient cooling. Here, a simple “bottom-up” ball milling approach to create uniform microassembly of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene) nanoparticles is reported. The micro- and nanopores among secondary particles and primary particles substantially enhance light scattering and results in excellent PDRC performance. A high solar reflectance of 0.94 and high emittance of 0.97 are achieved, making the coating 3.3 and 1.7 °C cooler than commercial white paints and the ambient temperature, under a high solar flux of ≈1100 W m−2. More importantly, the volatile organic compound content in the aqueous paint is only 71 g L−1. This satisfies the general regulatory requirements, which are critical to sustainability and practical applications.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2010334
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume31
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - May 10 2021
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • General Chemistry
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • General Materials Science
  • Electrochemistry
  • Biomaterials

Keywords

  • aqueous processing
  • ball milling
  • fluoropolymer
  • green manufacturing
  • passive daytime radiative cooling

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