Hierarchical-morphology metafabric for scalable passive daytime radiative cooling.
Shaoning ZengSijie PianMinyu SuZhuning WangMaoqi WuXinhang LiuMingyue ChenYuanzhuo XiangJiawei WuManni ZhangQingqing CenYuwei TangXianheng ZhouZhiheng HuangRui WangAlitenai TunuheXiyu SunZhigang XiaMingwei TianMin ChenXiao MaLvyun YangJun ZhouHuamin ZhouQing YangXin LiYaoguang MaGuangming TaoPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2021)
Incorporating passive radiative cooling structures into personal thermal management technologies could effectively defend humans against intensifying global climate change. We show that large-scale woven metafabrics can provide high emissivity (94.5%) in the atmospheric window and high reflectivity (92.4%) in the solar spectrum because of the hierarchical-morphology design of the randomly dispersed scatterers throughout the metafabric. Through scalable industrial textile manufacturing routes, our metafabrics exhibit desirable mechanical strength, waterproofness, and breathability for commercial clothing while maintaining efficient radiative cooling ability. Practical application tests demonstrated that a human body covered by our metafabric could be cooled ~4.8°C lower than one covered by commercial cotton fabric. The cost-effectiveness and high performance of our metafabrics present substantial advantages for intelligent garments, smart textiles, and passive radiative cooling applications.