Received: 15 July 2021 Revised: 5 September 2021 Accepted: 2 October 2021

DOI: 10.1002/eom2.12153

REVIEW

Passive daytime radiative cooling: Fundamentals, material

designs, and applications

Meijie Chen1 | Dan Pang1 | Xingyu Chen1 | Hongjie Yan1 | Yuan Yang2
1
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, China
2
Program of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New
York, USA

Correspondence
Meijie Chen, School of Energy Science Abstract
and Engineering, Central South Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) dissipates terrestrial heat to the extremely
University, Changsha, 410083, China.
cold outer space without using any energy input or producing pollution. It has the
Email: [email protected]
potential to simultaneously alleviate the two major problems of energy crisis and
Yuan Yang, Program of Materials Science
and Engineering, Department of Applied global warming. In this review, we summarize general strategies implemented for
Physics and Applied Mathematics, achieving PDRC and various applications of PDRC technologies. We first introduce
Columbia University, New York, NY
heat transfer processes involved in PDRC, including radiative and nonradiative heat
10027, USA.
Email: [email protected] transfer processes, to evaluate the PDRC performance. Subsequently, we summarize
the general material designs used for controlling PDRC performance, such as tuning
Funding information
Central South University, Grant/Award
the thermal mid-infrared emittance and solar reflectance. Finally, we discuss the
Number: None; National Natural Science diverse applications of PDRC technologies to overcome problems in space cooling,
Foundation of China, Grant/Award solar cell cooling, water harvesting, and electricity generation.
Number: 52006246; National Science
Foundation, Grant/Award Number:
KEYWORDS
2005747
coating, daytime, radiative cooling, solar reflectance, thermal emittance

1 | INTRODUCTION Radiative cooling systems can realize passive cooling,

which transfers excess heat to outer space through ther-
Over the years, cooling has become more critical to human mal radiation based on the large temperature difference
life because of global warming, population growth, and between the Earth (~ 300 K) and outer space (~ 3 K).4–7
industrial development. However, the current compression- These systems emit infrared thermal radiation from the
based cooling systems consume a lot of electricity and pro- Earth's surface through the atmosphere to outer space to
duce large amounts of CO2. Moreover, the typical refriger- achieve cooling without any energy consumption. For
ants applied in these systems destroy the ozone layer.1 In the past several centuries, radiative cooling has been used
addition, traditional cooling systems only transfer heat to dif- for terrestrial entity cooling and water harvesting during
ferent places on Earth, which increases environmental tem- nighttime in tropical and subtropical regions.
perature and cooling load power.2 Therefore, with increasing More than 2000 years ago, ancient Iranians and
awareness about the energy crisis and environmental prob- Indians employed radiative cooling to produce and store
lems, improving the cooling efficiency of existing systems ice in ice-making basins or ice pits, although the ambient
and finding new alternatives are becoming crucial.3 temperature was above the freezing point.8 In 1828,

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Arago first reported this phenomenon and found that the summarize existing material designs to achieve PDRC
temperatures of grass, cotton, and quilt placed outdoors from the whole spectrum.13,24–27 While little attention is
at night were 6–8 K lower than the ambient tempera- paid to the sub-band spectrum design from the solar
ture.9 In 1959, Head first used a selective infrared emitter spectrum (including colored coatings) and LWIR spec-
to improve nighttime radiative cooling performance. trum (selective or angle-dependent coatings), and their
Nighttime radiative cooling has been extensively studied dynamic switchable spectrum based on the solar spec-
over the past few decades.10 However, passive daytime trum or LWIR spectrum.
radiative cooling (PDRC) has higher requirements on Therefore, in this review, we first introduce the fun-
materials and structures to avoid solar heating. damentals of PDRC, followed by summarizing the mate-
With the development of radiative cooling technologies rial and structural designs to improve thermal LWIR
in recent years, PDRC can be achieved by reflecting solar emittance (including the broadband, selective, or angle-
radiation and increasing thermal mid-infrared emittance.11,12 dependent emittance) and solar reflectance (including
The PDRC coating needs a high solar reflectance (Rsolar ) in colored coatings), and the dynamic switchable regula-
the solar spectrum (0.3–2.5 μm) to avoid solar heating, tions of cooling coatings from the solar spectrum or
and a strong thermal emittance (εLWIR ) in the atmospheric LWIR spectrum. Finally, we discuss various applications
long-wave infrared (LWIR) transmission window (8– of PDRC, such as space cooling, solar cell cooling, water
13 μm) to lose energy to the cold sky. Hence, even during harvesting, and electricity generation.
daytime, the heat loss to the cold outer space by thermal
radiation through the atmospheric LWIR window is signifi-
cantly larger than the heating from sunlight, thereby 2 | FUNDAMENTALS OF PDRC
achieving electricity-free spontaneous cooling.13,14 C O A T I NGS
Recently, various PDRC coatings with high Rsolar and
εLWIR , such as photonic structures,4 polymers,15 According to Kirchhoff's law, materials with a tempera-
dielectrics,16,17 and dielectric-polymer composites,18 have ture above 0 K continuously absorb and emit electromag-
been developed. The intrinsic absorptance of polymers netic waves. Heat is exchanged among objects at different
and dielectric materials can usually provide a high emit- temperatures by absorbing and emitting these electro-
tance in the atmospheric LWIR window. Thus, achieving magnetic waves.24 Earth has been experiencing this phe-
a near-perfect solar reflectance is significant for achieving nomenon by radiating heat to the cold outer space.
PDRC. In the past decade, various materials or structures Therefore, the temperature of Earth gradually decreases
have been proposed to reflect solar radiation and achieve at night because its temperature (~ 300 K) is much higher
high cooling performance, including covering a bulk than that of outer space (~ 3 K) and there is no solar
polymer on a metal solar reflector (such as Ag and heating at night.12 When the heat absorbed by the coat-
Al),11,19 and using porous or microspherical structures ing is less than the energy radiated to the cold outer
where the curved interface (such as the SiO2-air, air-poly- space, the coating achieves electricity-free cooling even
mer, and SiO2-polymer interfaces) amplifies solar scatter- during the daytime (Figure 1A), which is the basic princi-
ing.20–23 Some previous reviews have been conducted to ple of PDRC.28

F I G U R E 1 Fundamentals of PDRC. (A) Schematic diagram and heat transfer processes of PDRC coatings. Patm and Psun are the
absorbed powers from the atmospheric and solar irradiations, respectively. Prad is the thermal radiation power of the PDRC coating. Pnonrad
denotes the nonradiative heat transfer processes (convection and conduction) between the coating and ambient environment.
(B) Normalized solar spectral intensity and LWIR atmospheric transparent window represented by the yellow and green curves, respectively.
Ideal spectrum of the PDRC coating is represented within the purple box
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CHEN ET AL. 3 of 28

2.1 | Solar reflectance and thermal powers from the atmospheric and solar irradiations, respec-
LWIR emittance of PDRC coatings tively. Pnonrad is the total power loss of all nonradiative heat
transfer processes, such as convective and thermal conduc-
PDRC requires precise control of the optical performance tion between the coating and the ambient environment.
of the coating over a wide spectrum (from UV to mid-infra-
red). Figure 1B shows the ideal spectrum of a PDRC coat-
ing: (a) In the solar spectrum (0.3–2.5 μm), the absorptance 2.2.1 | Radiative power of PDRC coatings
should be 0 (100% reflectance) to avoid solar heating. (b) In
the atmospheric LWIR transmission window (8–13 μm), The radiative power (Prad ) of a PDRC coating is a function
the emittance should be 1 to effectively radiate heat to of the coating temperature T c and the emittance spec-
outer space through this partially transparent atmosphere trum of the PDRC, which can be expressed as follows:
window. (c) In other mid-infrared wavelengths (2.5–8 μm
Z Z ∞
and > 13 μm), the emittance should be 0 to avoid the over-
Prad ðT c Þ ¼ cosθdΩ I bb ðλ, T c ÞεðΩ, λÞdλ, ð4Þ
heating of the atmospheric irradiation at a higher tempera- 0
ture than that of the PDRC coating. The temperature R R π=
difference between the atmosphere and PDRC coating is where dΩ ¼ 0 2 sinθdθdφ is the angular integral on a
small (5–10
C) in most cases; however, this can be ignored hemisphere, I bb is the spectral radiation power of the
when compared with the first two effects.2,8,12 Thus, the blackbody, T c is the PDRC coating temperature, and ε is
solar reflectance (Rsolar ) and thermal LWIR emittance the coating emittance.
(εLWIR ) are typically considered in the PDRC design. For PDRC applications, Prad is absorbed by the atmo-
Rsolar is the ratio of the reflected solar intensity to the sphere and outer space, which can be assumed to be a
integral solar intensity in λ = 0.3–2.5 μm, which can be blackbody system ε = 1. While the temperature of outer
expressed as follows: space is as low as 3 K, the radiation power of outer space
can be ignored. Furthermore, the radiation power of the
R 2:5μm
0:3μm I solar ðλÞRðλÞdλ
atmosphere should be considered because its temperature
Rsolar ¼ R 2:5μm , ð1Þ is similar to that of the coating, which will be discussed
0:3μm I solar ðλÞdλ
in the next section. In the range of Tc = 0–50
C, the radi-
ation peak of the blackbody is located in the atmospheric
where I solar ðλÞ represents the ASTM G173-03 global solar LWIR window, and more radiation can be emitted to
intensity spectrum at AM 1.5 and RðλÞ is the spectral outer space (Figure 2A).29 Therefore, a near-perfect emit-
reflectance of the coating. tance spectrum (ε = 1) at λ = 8–13 μm is usually required
Similarly, εLWIR is expressed as follows: to improve the PDRC performance. Furthermore, higher
radiation power based on an ideal emitter (Figure 1B)
R 13μm
8μm I bb ðT, λÞεðT, λÞdλ can be achieved at a higher Tc (Figure 2B) because of the
εLWIR ¼ R 13μm , ð2Þ fourth-power relationship between the radiation power
8μm I bb ðT,λÞdλ and temperature.
For most PDRC experiments with open and unobstructed
where I bb ðT, λÞ is the spectral intensity emitted by a stan- surroundings, the emittance is nearly angle-independent over
dard blackbody with temperature T and εðT, λÞ repre- a wide angular range (0–80
),31–30 and the change of emit-
sents the spectral emittance of the sample. tance in the experimental temperature range is small. Thus, ε
is usually assumed to be independent of temperature and
angle. However, it is important to consider direction-
2.2 | Cooling power of PDRC coatings dependent emittance when the coating is not fully hori-
zontal or the surrounding environment is not open and
In the daytime, the net cooling power of a PDRC coating unobstructed because radiation from the ground cannot
is a combination of solar radiation, coating, atmospheric be ignored.
thermal radiation, and nonradiative heat transfer
(Figure 1A), and can be expressed as follows:
2.2.2 | Absorbed power from atmospheric
Pnet ¼ Prad  Patm  Psolar  Pnonrad , ð3Þ irradiation

where Pnet is the net cooling power. Prad is the radiative The absorbed power from atmospheric irradiation (Patm )
power of the coating. Patm and Psolar are the absorbed is related to the coating emittance ε (absorptance),
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4 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

atmospheric emittance εatm , and temperature T amb , called the first atmospheric transparent window. In this
which can be expressed as follows: region, the atmosphere is highly transparent, and most
thermal radiation can be emitted into outer space.30 The
Z Z ∞
atmospheric transmittance depends on the zenith angle,
Patm ðT amb Þ ¼ cosθdΩ I bb ðλ, T amb ÞεðΩ, λÞεatm ðΩ, λÞdλ,
0 cloud cover latitude, and air humidity. For example, con-
ð5Þ sidering the effect of air humidity, the atmospheric trans-
mittance decreases with an increase in the water column
R R π= because of the infrared absorptance of water vapor
where dΩ ¼ 0 2 sinθdθdφ is the angular integral on a (Figure 3A), which would reduce the radiative cooling
hemisphere; I bb ðλ, T Þ is the spectral radiation of a black- power (Figure 3B).31
body at temperature T; and εatm ðθ, λÞ is the atmospheric To clarify the interrelationship between Prad ðT c Þ and
emittance as a function of direction and wavelength, which Patm ðT amb Þ, it can be seen that when T c = T amb ,
can be obtained by εatm ðθ, λÞ ¼ 1  t ðλÞ1=cosθ , where t ðλÞ is Patm ðT amb Þ is almost equal to the absorbed power of the
the atmospheric transmittance in the zenith direction. atmosphere from the coating irradiation and the cooling
Figure 3A shows the atmospheric transmittance in power is equal to the radiative power emitted into outer
the mid-infrared region. A large transmittance or small space through the atmospheric LWIR window, which
emittance can be achieved at λ = 8–13 μm, which is also can be expressed as follows:

F I G U R E 2 Radiative power of the PDRC coating at different temperatures. (A) Blackbody spectral radiative powers at different
temperatures. (B) Radiative power Prad of an ideal PDRC coating at different temperatures through the ideal atmospheric LWIR window

F I G U R E 3 Absorbed power from atmospheric irradiation. (A) Atmospheric transmittance under Sub-Arctic Winter (water
column = 517.7 atm-cm and visibility = 23.0 km), Sub-Arctic Summer (water column = 2589.4 atm-cm and visibility = 23.0 km) and
Tropical (water column = 5119.4 atm-cm and visibility = 23.0 km) conditions. The atmospheric transmittance data is obtained from
MODTRAN. (B) Nighttime cooling and absorbed atmospheric irradiation powers of an ideal radiative coating at different water columns.
(C) Spectral power densities Prad ðλÞ and Patm ðλÞ at the ambient temperature T atm = 298.15 K, and the temperature of coating is 298.15 K
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CHEN ET AL. 5 of 28

Prad ðT c Þ  Patm ðT amb Þ

Z Z ∞
ð6Þ
¼ cosθdΩ I bb ðλ,T ÞεðΩ, λÞ½1  εatm ðΩ, λÞdλ
0

The value of Prad ðT c Þ  Patm ðT amb Þ is mainly determined

by the radiative power at λ = 8–13 μm because of the first
atmospheric LWIR window. Therefore, εLWIR in Equa-
tion (2) is usually used to determine the thermal radia-
tion behavior of PDRCs in the mid-infrared region, as
shown in Figure 3C.
When T c < T amb , Patm ðT amb Þ is larger than the
absorbed power of the atmosphere from the coating irra-
F I G U R E 4 Solar spectral irradiance of the extraterrestrial
diation; this would heat the coating because of the infra- (AM 0), global tilted (AM 1.5), and direct normal spectra (AM 1.5).
red absorption from atmosphere irradiation out of the The AM 1.5 standard spectrum refers to exactly two standard
range λ = 8–13 μm. Moreover, when T c > T amb , the terrestrial solar spectral irradiance spectra. The two spectra define a
PDRC performance would improve because of the lower standard direct normal spectral irradiance and a standard total
infrared absorption from the atmosphere irradiation out spectral irradiance. The direct normal spectrum is the direct
of the range λ = 8–13 μm. Therefore, to standardize the component that contributes to the total global (hemispherical)
calculation of cooling power, T c ¼ T amb is generally used spectrum
to calculate the net cooling power, where a higher coat-
ing temperature T c improves the cooling power. Simulta-
neously, the secondary atmospheric window (16–28 μm) power of a high-performance PDRC coating is ~100–
may provide an additional maximal cooling power of 150 W m2 at T = 25
C, while the global solar radiation
20 W m2,32 which is usually ignored because of its weak can be as high as 1000 W m2. The solar reflectance of
transmittance, especially at high air humidity, as shown PDRC coatings should be larger than 0.9 to achieve
in Figure 3A. cooling performance in the daytime. Therefore, in practi-
cal PDRC applications, Rsolar should be >0.95, or at least
>0.9, and εLWIR should be over 0.7, preferably above 0.9.
2.2.3 | Absorbed power from solar
irradiation
2.2.4 | Nonradiative heat transfer
Sunlight is attenuated after traveling through the atmo-
sphere because of the scattering and absorption of atmo- Nonradiative heat transfer (convection and conduction)
spheric components. Figure 4A shows the solar spectral should be considered to evaluate the performance of
irradiance of the extraterrestrial (AM 0), global tilted, and PDRC. The nonradiative loss can be expressed as follows:
direct normal spectra at AM 1.5, where it can be observed
that the solar irradiation is mainly concentrated at λ Pnonrad ¼ hðT amb  T c Þ, ð8Þ
= 0.3–2.5 μm. The global solar irradiation flux can reach
1000 W m2 for a clear sky, with the diffuse component where h is the total heat transfer coefficient, which
typically in the range of 50–100 W m2.9 The formula for accounts for the convection and conduction heat transfer
calculating the solar irradiation absorbed by the PDRC between the environment and PDRC coating.
can be expressed as follows: The conduction heat transfer is mainly determined by
the surrounding materials of the PDRC coating, whereas
Z 2:5um
the convection heat transfer depends on the wind speed
Psolar ¼ εðθ, λÞI solar ðλÞdλ, ð7Þ
0:3um over the PDRC coating.8,12,33 In PDRC experiments, sev-
eral devices are proposed to minimize the effect of non-
where θ is the incident angle of solar irradiation. εðθ, λÞ radiative heat transfer (Figure 5) and to evaluate the
is the coating emittance as a function of direction and PDRC performance. A direct solution is to place the
wavelength. I solar ðλÞ is the direct spectral solar PDRC coating on a substrate directly exposed to the
irradiation. ambient atmosphere, as shown in Figure 5A, thereby
For PDRC under sunlight, the effect of solar heating resulting in T c < T amb . In this device, a thermal insula-
on PDRC performance is significant. The typical cooling tion substrate is used to avoid conduction heat transfer
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6 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

temperature decrease since the experiment setup and

atmospheric condition are various in different works.
Hence, in the following section, we will focus on the fun-
damental spectral design to achieve PDRC.

3 | MATERIAL DESIGNS
FOR P DRC

To achieve effective PDRC, a structure should not only

achieve a solar reflectance much higher than 0.9 but
should also exhibit a high emittance value (> 0.9) in the
atmospheric LWIR transparent window. In this section,
we summarize the materials and structure design for
solar reflectance and thermal mid-infrared emittance.

3.1 | Thermal mid-infrared emittance

F I G U R E 5 Schematic diagrams of three different devices for
PDRC coatings. (A) The PDRC coating is placed on a substrate and To achieve better PDRC performance in sub-ambient
is directly exposed to the ambient atmosphere (T c < T amb ). (B) The conditions, diverse materials have been proposed to
PDRC coating is placed in a well-insulated enclosure and a improve the mid-infrared emittance where λ = 8–13 μm.
convection shield is employed at the top to suppress the thermal These structures can be categorized into inorganic dielec-
losses caused by convection and conduction heat transfer at sub- tric materials and organic polymer materials,15,59–62 as
ambient conditions (T c < T amb ). (C) Instead of demonstrating a shown in Figure 6. Both types of materials are almost
temperature difference between the radiative cooling surface and transparent (k is almost 0) in the solar spectrum to avoid
ambient temperatures (T c  T amb ), the PDRC coating is placed on a solar absorption or heating, and exhibit strong absorption
heater to maintain T c ¼ T amb for measuring the net cooling power
(k is large) in the atmospheric LWIR window, and emit
more heat to the deep outer space.62,63

between the coating and the substrate. However, convec-

tion heat transfer between the air and coating, which 3.1.1 | Improved thermal mid-infrared
would heat the coating because T c < T amb , cannot be emittance
ignored. To avoid convection heat transfer, a convection
shield can be employed at the top to suppress thermal Inorganic dielectric materials can achieve spectrally
losses, as shown in Figure 5B, and the temperature differ- selective infrared emittance because of the wide absorp-
ence between the radiative cooling surface and ambient tion band of metal-O bonds.37,48 In addition, Al2O3, TiO2,
temperatures (T c  T amb ) can be used to characterize the and SiO2 are stable and chemically inert materials, and
PDRC performance. To measure the net cooling power, a inorganic coatings inherently exhibit superior mechani-
heater with controlled power can be placed under the cal robustness and retainability, thereby guaranteeing a
PDRC coating to maintain T c ¼ T amb and the heating long lifespan in exterior environments. Thus, a simple
power is equal to the net cooling power, as shown in bulk dielectric multilayer can achieve a selective thermal
Figure 5C. mid-infrared emittance spectrum (Figure 7A).4,48,58 In
As discussed above, the cooling power of PDRC coat- addition, high-performance PDRC performance can be
ings can be measured at T c ¼ T amb while the temperature obtained by more complex photonic multi-layer struc-
decrease is obtained at T c < T amb , which are determined tures to increase the emittance in the LWIR atmospheric
by the thermal boundary (temperature, convection, and window.11 However, these multi-layer dielectric layers or
conduction) and atmospheric conditions. Table 1 lists the structures usually have submicron level dimensions
PDRC performance of some reported works. It can be (Figure 7A), and their fabrication requires complex
found that the cooling power is about 40–130 W m2 at processing methods, such as etching and magnetron
the ambient temperature of 300–310 K while the temper- sputtering.
ature decrease is 2–15 K. It is difficult to compare the Compared with bulk dielectric films, dielectric micro-
PDRC performance by the cooling power and sphere coatings can be easily prepared by painting, and a
 TABLE 1 List of types, materials, thickness, solar reflectance, thermal LWIR emittance, temperature decrease, and cooling power of the previously reported PDRC coatings

Cooling Solar
CHEN ET AL.

Solar Thermal power Temperature intensity Ambient

Author and year Structure and material Thickness reflectance emittance W m-2 decrease W m-2 temperature Remark
11
E. Rephaeli in 2013 Quartz-SiC-MgF2-TiO2-Ag 1.8 μm 0.965 / 105 / 964 300 K Sim.
4

A.P. Raman in 2014 HfO2-SiO2-Ag 1.6 μm 0.97 / 40.1 4.9 C 850 / Exp.
Z. Chen19 in 2016 Si3N4-Si-Al 0.92 μm / / / 4.2
C / / Exp.
J. long Kou34 in 2017 PDMS-SiO2-Ag 720 μm / / 127 8.2
C / 300 K Exp.
23
Z Huang in 2017 Acrylic resin- TiO2 500 μm 0.9 >0.9 100 / 900 300 K Sim.
15

J. Mandal in 2018 Porous PVDF ~300 μm 0.96 ± 0.03 0.97 ± 0.02 96 6 C 890 / Exp.
S. Gamage35 in 2019 Porous cellulose 275 μm >0.9 ~0.9 / 15
C / / Exp.
A. Lerory36 in 2019 Porous PEA 6 mm 0.922 0.799 96 13
C 936 298 K Exp.
37
J. Fernandez in SiO2 spheres 8 μm 0.97 >0.9 107–125 / 800 / Exp.
2019
L.Zhou30 in 2019 PDMS-Al 150 μm / / 120 ~2–9
C ~853.5 / Exp.
38
E.Lee in 2019 PDMS-Ag 220 μm / / / 11
C 1000 300 K Sim.
T. Suichi39 in 2020 PMMA+SiO2-PDMS-Ag 27 μm / / / 2.3
C 778 >309.5 K Exp.
29
J. Song in 2020 PDMS-Ag >100 μm / 0.99 / / / / Exp.
40
E. Blandre in 2020 SiO2-Ag >500 μm / / 114 / / 300 K Sim.
H. Zhang41 in 2020 PDMS+Al2O3 spheres 500 μm ~0.95 >0.96 ~90.8 5.1
C 862 305 K Exp.
X. Li42 in 2020 Acrylic + CaCO3 particles ~400 μm 0.955 0.94 37 1.7
C 963 / Exp.
43
Z. Cheng in 2020 TiO2 + SiO2 spheres / 0.956 0.949 / / / / Sim.
44

X. Wang in 2020 Porous PVDF + SiO2 spheres 300 μm 0.97 0.96 61 6 C 1000 305 K Sim.
Z. Cheng45 in 2020 acrylic resin +SiO2 spheres 70 μm / 0.937 108.49 8.7
C 952 / Exp.
46
R. Yalcln in 2020 PDMS+SiO2 + Ag 500 μm / / 114 / / 300 K Sim.
47

H. Zhao in 2020 Porous PDMS 500 μm 0.93 0.94 / 5 C 950 308 K Exp.
48

D. Chae in 2020 SiO2-Si3N4-Al2O3-Ag 502 μm 0.948 0.87 / 8.3 C 872 / Exp.
X. Nie49 in 2020 PDMS + glass bubbles 750 μm 0.92 0.85 78 5.3
C 780 / Exp.
50
X. Zhang in 2021 PMMA + Si3N4 + Al2O3 35 μm 0.915 0.9958 / / / / Sim.
particles
S. Zhong51 in 2021 Cotton + PDMS-AIPO4 / 0.97 0.94 / 5.4
C 998 310 K Exp.
52
B. Xiang in 2021 Porous PCA + SiO2 spheres 150 μm 0.96 0.95 / 6.2
C 900 / Exp.
53

K. Zhou in 2021 Porous PE + SiO2 spheres 840 μm 0.962 >0.9 85 6.1 C 747 / Exp.
54

J. Zhang in 2021 Polyester fabrics 200 μm 0.95 / 48 4.9 C / / Exp.
7 of 28

(Continues)

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8 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

high emittance can be achieved by tuning the fill rate

Remark
and sphere radius because of the dipole resonance of

Exp.
Sim.
Exp.

Sim.
microspheres in the mid-infrared region
(Figure 7B).20,37,64 However, these dielectric microsphere
coatings have various problems, such as lack of flexibility,
temperature

water-repellence, and anti-abrasion. Furthermore, by

Ambient

incorporating dielectric microspheres in a polymer, a

298 K
300 K

300 K
flexible and water-repellent PDRC coating can be
/

obtained, and the LWIR emittance can be further

improved (> 0.95) and adjusted by the polymer, volume
intensity

fraction, and radius of the microspheres (Figure 7c).18,23

W m-2
Solar

Recently, polymer-based PDRC coatings and paints

800
/
/

have gained considerable attention because of their poten-

tial for large-scale production, low cost, and applicability to
Temperature

various systems. The infrared “fingerprint” of polymers

decrease

with many functional groups/bonds, such as C-F and C-O,

overlap with the atmospheric LWIR transmittance window
7.9
C

8.6
C
7 C

and are responsible for the high thermal mid-infrared emit-

tance of polymers.62,65 Thus, nonporous polymer coatings,

Cooling

such as PDMS, PMMA, and PVDF with a thickness of

power
W m-2

~200 μm, usually have an average LWIR emittance of 0.95

a

84.1
150

100
72

(Figure 8A) because of the intrinsic absorption ability of

polymers.65,66 To reduce material consumption, the emit-
emittance

tance in the atmospheric LWIR window can be improved

Thermal

significantly at a thickness of 28.5 μm by the broadband

0.984
0.935

0.908

localized surface plasmon resonance of self-doped In2O3

/

nanoparticles (4.5%) (Figure 8B). However, these polymer

reflectance

coatings could not achieve near-perfect emittance in the

atmospheric LWIR window by increasing the polymer
Solar

0.941

0.966

thickness because of the inevitable interface reflection

0.98

between the air and polymer, and the maximal εLWIR

/

= 0.95 at 25
C.
Thickness

A near-perfect emittance εLWIR = 0.99, which can be

~ 1.43 μm
300 μm
2 mm

achieved by modifying the coating surfaces with some

microstructures (such as grating patterns,29,66 and wrin-
/

kles50) to reduce the interface reflectance in the mid-

This cooling power includes evaporative cooling and radiative cooling.

infrared region (Figure 8C). These surface microstruc-

tures require expensive templates during the preparation
PVDF + Li-PAAm hydrogel

process, thereby limiting large-scale applications.41 Simi-

Structure and material

acrylate + Al2O3 + SiO2

larly, by coupling the effect of microspheres and micro-

SiO2-Si3N4-Al2O3-Ag

structure surfaces (Figure 8D), polymer coatings with a

porous surface can potentially be used for PDRC applica-
particles

tion; these coatings can be easily painted by the volatili-

PVDF-Al

zation of the solvent,15 or the dissolution of the sphere

template.67,68 A high value of εLWIR = 0.97 at 25
C has
been achieved in both experiments and simulations.15,56
(Continued)

However, the volatile solvent used in the preparation of

in 2021

porous coatings increases the content of volatile organic

Author and year

D. Chae57 in 2021
C. Feng in 2021

Y. Zhu58 in 2021

compounds (VOCs). To overcome this issue, an aqueous

processing-based polymer coating with both excellent
56
TABLE 1

55

M. Chen

PDRC performance and low VOC content was reported

by the assembly of nanoparticles into uniform micro-
clusters.69
a
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 9 of 28

F I G U R E 6 Complex refractive indices for (A) inorganic materials. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2007 and 2012,
OSA,59,60 Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2016, Wiley,61 and (B) organic polymers used for PDRC. Source: Reproduced with
permission: Copyright 2018, AAAS,15 Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, Elsevier62

F I G U R E 7 Mid-infrared emittance of inorganic materials based on (A) multilayer coating. Source: Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2014, Spring Nature),4 (B) microsphere stacked coating. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2018, ACS,20
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Elsevier,64 and (C) inorganic microsphere mixed with the organic polymer. Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2017, AAAS18

In addition, the fabric structure can also achieve spectrum of the underlying surface and thus relaxes
PDRC, which incorporates PDRC into personal thermal restrictions on thicknesses.73,74 For example, εLWIR of
management technologies. Much work has been done for 0.95 can be achieved through the hierarchical-
mid-infrared (MIR)–transparent radiative cooling tex- morphology design of randomly dispersed scatterers
tiles.70–72 And a small thickness of < ~150 μm is usually throughout a metafabric.75 Compared with PDRC films
needed to maintain enough MIR transmittance, limiting or paints, the woven structure enables metafabrics to eas-
the solar reflectivity (discussed in the following section) ily accommodate complex deformations (bending,
and mechanical strength. On the other hand, the perfor- stretching, and twisting), which leads to versatile
mance of MIR-emissive textiles does not depend on the compatibility.
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
10 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

F I G U R E 8 Mid-infrared emittance of organic polymers based on (A) bulk film coating. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright
2019, Elsevier.65 Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, IPO Science,66 (B) plasmonic microsphere coating. Source: Reproduced with
permission: Copyright 2020, ACS,32 (C) surface microstructure coating. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, AIP,29
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, IPO Science,66 and (D) porous polymer coating. Source: Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2021, ACS56

3.1.2 | Selective emittance thermal radiation from the terrestrial object, even as they
radiate and lose LWIR heat into the sky. Consequently,
As discussed above, various materials and structures with they can yield considerably greater cooling, which is then
a strong thermal LWIR emittance have been investigated achieved by the broadband emitter (Figure 9E,F).
to achieve PDRC through the atmospheric LWIR win- This type of selective emitter applies to various build-
dow. However, most of the reported radiative cooling ing envelopes, such as walls and windows, and can be
materials exhibit broadband absorptance/emittance, conveniently produced from plastics, polymer resins, and
thereby covering the entire mid-infrared wavelength ceramics. For example, poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (PMP),
when the coating is facing the sky. Compared with a poly(vinyl fluoride) (PVF), metalized polypropene (PP),
selective thermal emitter, a broadband thermal emitter biaxially oriented poly(ethene terephthalate) (BoPET),
with a high emittance beyond the atmospheric transmit- alumina (Al2O3) ceramic tiles, PMMA and PDMS-based
tance window absorbs downward thermal radiation from paint resins, and common household materials such as
the atmosphere when the atmosphere temperature is scotch-tape, also exhibit selective LWIR emittance.31 In
higher than the coating, thereby compromising the addition, large-scalable fabrication technologies (such as
cooling performance (Figure 9A).76 Theoretical calcula- paints for walls or electrospinning for textiles) have
tions show that an ideal selective emitter allows a larger enabled substantial flexibility for the scalable manufac-
temperature drop than that of the broadband emitter ture of PDRC coatings in various applications.
(Figure 9B,C), especially when the coating temperature
Tc is lower than the atmospheric temperature Tamb.
Moreover, when Tc = Tamb, the PDRC performance 3.1.3 | Angle-dependent emittance
between the selective emitter and nonselective emitter is
similar because the absorbed radiation from the atmo- In addition to selective emittance properties, angle-
sphere is almost equal to the power emitted into the dependent emittance is also of significant interest in
atmosphere. PDRC applications. It is a fundamental challenge to con-
In addition, the selective emitter is also significant at trol the directional emittance of far-field thermal radia-
a vertically oriented coating because of the irradiation tion and photonic structures can be designed to achieve
from the Earth glow, as shown in Figure 9D, wherein an angle-dependent emittance over narrow bandwidths.
most of the surface area of typical buildings is vertically However, it is of significance to constrain the thermal
oriented and the ground temperature is higher.31 Based emittance over broad bandwidths to the specific angular
on the differential transmittance or emittance of the range due to the broadband characteristics of thermal
atmosphere toward the sky (narrowband, LWIR) and radiation in PDRC applications.
between terrestrial objects (broadband), the selective When the coating faces the sky, the temperature of
emitter can reflect large bandwidths of broadband surrounding buildings is higher than the emitter, as
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 11 of 28

F I G U R E 9 Theoretical analysis of a selective thermal emitter in the mid-infrared region. (A)–(C) Horizontal coating facing the sky.
Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Spring Nature76: (A) Schematic of the radiative heat transfer process of the selective
and nonselective thermal emitters. The selective thermal emitter has a more suppressed absorption of thermal radiation from the
surroundings as compared with that of the non-selective emitter. (B) The mid-infrared spectrum of an ideal selective thermal emitter (blue
line) and a nonselective thermal emitter (red line). (C) Net cooling power as a function of the emitter temperature based on a typical
atmospheric transmittance and without nonradiation heat transfer. (D)–(E) Vertically oriented coating31: (D) Schematic showing the
possible radiative heat transfer between a vertical wall and the ground and sky in its view. (E) The possible heat gain (red) from the ground
(at 55
C) and heat loss (blue) to the sky, as shown for an ideal broadband emitter at ambient temperature (here 32
C) under desert (TPW
10.5 mm) and tropical (TPW 58.6 mm) climates. (F) Analog for an ideal selective LWIR emitter. By reflecting thermal radiation outside the
window, the selective emitter filters out most of the broadband thermal radiation from the ground and facilitates better cooling when the
ground in view is hot

shown in Figure 10A. A broadband directional emitter and 7.7–11.5 μm, respectively (Figure 10G,H). This broad-
was designed theoretically by covering an angular selec- band directional emitter enables meaningful heat transfer
tor on the top of a broadband thermal emitter, as shown and energy applications, which can overcome the con-
in Figure 10B. This type of directional emitter has high ventional limits on the angular response of selective emit-
emittance with the emission angle ranging from 0 to 40
ter to improve performance in solar thermal conversion,
and nearly 100% reflectance from 40 to 90
, as shown in thermophotovoltaics, radiative cooling, and waste heat
Figure 10C. Although the coating temperature can be recovery.78
decreased through PDRC coatings with an angular selec-
tor or not, the directional emitter exhibits better PDRC
performance than the broadband emitter without an 3.2 | Solar reflectance
angular selector (Figure 10D).77
In addition, based on gradient epsilon-near-zero In the daytime, the global solar irradiation heat flux at
material, two broadband directional emitters were experi- AM 1.5 is ~1000 W m2,9 which directly heats the coat-
mentally fabricated (Figure 10E,F). The angle-dependent ing facing the sky. In addition, the radiation power emit-
emitters consisted of conventional oxides that exhibit ted to the cold outer space through the LWIR window by
high (> 0.7 and > 0.6) directional emittance (60–75
and an ideal emitter at 25
C only covers 10% of the solar
70–85
) in the broadband wavelength of 10.0–14.3 μm intensity (100 W m2). Therefore, it is important to
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
12 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 0 Directional thermal emitter used in PDRC. (A)–(D) Directional emitter based on angular selector. Source: Reproduced
with permission: Copyright 2020, APS77: (A) Radiative cooling with angular control of thermal emission when there are surrounding
buildings. (B) Directional emitter consisting of a broadband thermal emitter at the bottom and a multilayer angular selector on the top.
(C) Spectral emittance of the directional emitter. (D) Equilibrium temperatures of ambient air (blue line), broadband thermal emitter (red
line), and emitter (black line) for different ambient temperatures. The effective heat transfer coefficient h = 0.5 W m2 K1. (E)–
(I) Directional emitter based on gradient epsilon-near-zero material structures (Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, AAAS).78
(E) and (F) SEM images of the experimentally fabricated multilayer photonic film structures. (G) and (H) Measured emittance of the two
photonic structures at varying wavelengths at three different angles for p-polarization. Both the photonic structures exhibit a strong contrast
between emissive and reflective states as a function of angle of incidence

achieve an average solar reflectance Rsolar > 0.9, for PDRC product usually lacks flexible, water-repellent, and anti-
applications. abrasion properties, as discussed above.
Using highly reflective metal substrates (such as Ag A simple method to overcome the above problems is
and Al) underneath is a simple method to achieve Rsolar to mix these dielectric microspheres with polymers to
> 0.9 (Figure 11A).4,18,19,30,48 Furthermore, the top mate- achieve a high solar reflectance, as shown in Figure 11D.
rials in the coatings should have low absorption (k ~ 0) in However, because of the similar refractive indices
the solar spectrum and strong absorption in the atmo- between dielectric microspheres and the polymer (such
spheric LWIR window. Thus, polymers (such as PDMS) as 1.39 vs. 1.44 for PDMS and SiO2), a large thickness
or dielectric materials (such as Al2O3 and SiO2) (> 1000 μm) is usually needed to achieve Rsolar > 0.9. The
(Figure 6) can be coated on an Ag or Al reflector to Rsolar of dielectric microsphere polymer coatings can be
achieve effective PDRC performance. However, the metal further improved by using metal reflectors18 or hollow
reflectors are usually smooth Ag or Al films, which microspheres,83 or by mixing different microspheres.43,79
would increase the costs of materials and manufacturing. Similarly, replacing microspheres with pores can greatly
Moreover, these metals are unstable in the air for long- enhance the solar reflectance because it can introduce
term usage, especially in areas with high pollution or multi-size distributions and large differences in refractive
high humidity. index (such as 1.39 vs. 1.00 for P[VDF-HPF] vs. air), as
Solar reflectance can be improved by using Mie scat- shown in Figure 11E, leading to a high Rsolar > 0.96 at a
tering while avoiding the use of metal reflectors. Thus, thickness of 300 μm.15,36,54,56 In addition, dielectric
various dielectric microspheres (such as TiO2,22,23 SiO2 microspheres have also been added to the porous poly-
,20,64 CaCO3,81 and BaSO482) or polymer microspheres mer coating (Figure 11F) to achieve a high solar reflec-
(such as P[VdF-HFP]69) have been randomly stacked to tance by the coupling scattering effect of multiple
investigate the PDRC performance (Figure 11B,C), and a interfaces (such as dielectric-air, dielectric-polymer, and
high value of Rsolar > 0.95, could be achieved at a thick- air-polymer).55–47
ness of 300–500 μm by tuning the sphere parameters When the angle of incidence is larger than the critical
(such as material, size, and core-shell ratio).39,49 How- angle, the incident light has reflected in the medium.
ever, some binders and thickeners are required to paint This phenomenon is known as total internal reflectance,
these random microsphere coatings, and the final which occurs under the following two conditions: (1) the
25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
13 of 28

Legend on next page.

FIGURE 11
CHEN ET AL.
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
14 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

light moves from a denser medium to a less dense the white color of these coatings is very dazzling due to
medium; (2) the angle of incidence is greater than the the high solar reflectance, which does not satisfy the need
critical angle. Hence, the total internal reflectance was for color. The coloration of PDRC coatings would impair
also introduced by modifying certain surface microstruc- the cooling performance because of solar absorption in
tures to further enhance the solar reflectance at a thinner the visible spectrum. Hence, mitigating the solar absorp-
thickness, as shown in Figures 11G,H. For the dielectric tion of the colored PDRC coating needs the narrowband
microsphere polymer coating (thickness is 500 μm) in selective absorption in the visible spectrum to balance
Figure 11G, Rsolar can increase from 0.29 to 0.96 by intro- the coloration and cooling performance.
ducing a 3D architecture around the coating surface, Many research works have been conducted to achieve
which is attributed to the elimination of the pyramid colored PDRC coatings. Theoretically, silicon
photonic architectures and the smaller diameter of the nanostructures were designed to exhibit various colors
Al2O3 particles suppress the effects of total internal based on the geometric design to achieve color-preserving
reflectance and Mie scattering, respectively.41 Further- PDRC (Figure 12A).84 To further suppress the solar
more, by applying micropores on the top of the porous absorption of colored PDRC coatings in the visible spec-
PMMA coating to enhance the total internal reflectance, trum, plasmonic Ag@SiO2 core-shell nanoparticles (NPs)
Rsolar can be improved to 0.95, which is much higher than were embedded in the polymer matrix to achieve selec-
that of the nanopore PMMA coating (Rsolar = 0.74), tive narrowband absorption in the visible spectrum
micropore PMMA coating (Rsolar = 0.23), and pristine (Figure 12B).46 However, it is difficult to control the geo-
PMMA film (Rsolar = 0.10) (Figure 11H).67 In addition to metric parameters of these structural colors based on
coatings discussed above, a textile reflector based on PEO dielectric metasurfaces or plasmonic NPs, limiting their
can achieve Rsolar = 0.96, which scatters the solar irradia- large-scale usage and applications.
tion by microstructures and nanostructures A paintable bilayer coating was prepared to achieve
76
(Figure 11i). colored PDRC coating to overcome this problem
As discussed above, the general strategies for achiev- (Figure 12C). The top layer absorbs appropriate visible
ing high solar reflectance can be divided into three cate- wavelengths to display specific colors by dyes, while
gories: metal reflectors (such as Ag or Al), Mie scattering the underlayer enhances the reflectance of near-
by spheres (such as dielectric spheres, polymer spheres, infrared light to reduce solar heating.22 In addition,
or voids), and total internal reflectance by surface micro- recent innovations such as fluorescent pigments that
structures (such as micropores, pyramids, and cones). convert visible absorption to NIR emission, instead of
The interface (such as SiO2-polymer, SiO2-air, air-poly- the light-to-heat conversion in the colored PDRC coat-
mer, CaCO3-polymer, and TiO2-polymer) in the coating ing to reduce the effect of coloration on the cooling
can fully utilize Mie scattering to amplify solar scattering, performance. For example, bilayer-colored PDRC coat-
which shows great potential in PDRC applications. ings were also prepared using silica-embedded perov-
skite nanoparticles on a highly mid-infrared-radiative
white emitter (Figure 12D).85 These results indicate
3.3 | Colored PDRC coating that the bilayer paintable coating based on fluorescent
pigments can achieve both coloration and PDRC in
PDRC coatings need a high solar reflectance and thermal large-scale production, inexpensive, and great applica-
LWIR emittance to cool objects under sunlight. However, bility manner.

F I G U R E 1 1 General strategies to reflect solar irradiation. (A) Metal reflector (such as: Ag and Al). Source: Reproduced with
permission: Copyright 2019, Spring Nature),30 and Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, ACS.48. (B) Inorganic dielectric
microsphere random coating (such as: TiO2, SiO2, and Al2O3 microspheres). Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2018, ACS,20
and Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Elsevier.64 (C) Organic polymer microsphere coating (such as: P[VdF-HFP]). Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Wiley.69 (D) Polymer microsphere coating. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright
2021 and 2019, Elsevier,21,79 and Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Spring.43 (E) Porous polymer coating (such as: P(VdF-HFP),
PDMS, and PMMA). Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2018, AAAS,15 and Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021,
ACS.56 (F) Porous polymer coating with dielectric microspheres. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Elsevier,52 and
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, ACS.80 (G) Polymer microsphere coating modified by the surface microstructure. Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, PNAS.41 (H) Porous polymer coating modified by the surface microstructure. Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Spring Nature.67 (I) Textile reflector based on the polymer (such as: PEO). Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Spring Nature76
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 15 of 28

F I G U R E 1 2 Strategies for colored PDRC coatings: (A) Schematic of the color-preserving structure based on the structural color of the
dielectric structure, with quartz bar array on top of the original structure of silicon nanowires. Source: Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2013, AIP.84 (B) Schematic of the colored coating based on the structural color of the plasmonic structure, consisting of a silver
reflector and Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles embedded in silica. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, ACS.46 (C) Schematic
illustrating the interaction between sunlight and thermal radiation with the paintable bilayer design. A selective reflection in the visible
spectrum yields dye color. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, AAAS.22 (D) Schematic of colored emitter for daytime
radiative cooling devices with silica-embedded perovskite nanocrystals. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021, Elsevier85

3.4 | Dynamic switchable radiative adaptive coating based on VO2 was theoretically
cooling coatings designed; the coating can adaptively turn “on” and “off”
radiative cooling in the LWIR atmospheric window while
Daytime and nighttime radiative cooling by reflecting the solar reflectance is unchanged (Rsolar ~ 1) by a spec-
solar irradiation (0.3–2.5 μm) and emitting mid-infrared trally selective filter, depending on the ambient tempera-
radiation through the LWIR atmospheric window (8– ture without any extra energy input for switching, as
13 μm) has been extensively investigated in recent shown in Figure 13A.86 In addition to the switchable
decades. However, in some applications (such as roofs in emittance in the LWIR atmospheric window, a hybrid
the temperate zone), cooling is preferred in summer but VO2/TiN coating was prepared to dynamically control
not desired in winter for better thermal comfort. To over- near-infrared (IR) radiation based on the ambient tem-
come this issue, dynamically switchable coatings have perature and solar intensity.95 Solar heating by plasmonic
been developed to prevent overcooling in winter or cold TiN can reduce the transition ambient temperature, mak-
environments, which can be divided into several catego- ing VO2/TiN promising as a smart energy-saving coating
ries based on: (1) temperature (Figure 13A), (2) dielectric in buildings. For temperature-dependent coatings, choos-
environment (Figure 13B), and (3) mechanical force ing a suitable phase change material is critical for differ-
(Figure 13C–E). ent applications owing to the various Tcr values. Much
The operational mode of a temperature-dependent effort has been devoted to VO2 coatings in the switching
switchable coating can be controlled based on the critical of the mid-infrared spectrum, and only a few studies have
temperature Tct of the phase change material. When Tc reported the switchable ability of temperature-dependent
> Tct, the coating operates as a cooling device, and when coatings in the solar spectrum.
Tc < Tct, the coating stays in the heating mode. Switch- Apart from temperature-dependent switchable coat-
able coatings based on vanadium dioxide (VO2),86,90–93 ings, other dynamic switchable coatings require extra
which exhibit an insulator-to-metal transition at Tct energy input for switching. One method for developing
= 68
C, have been developed.94 For example, a self- such dynamic coatings is to change the dielectric
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
16 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 3 Dynamic switchable coatings for thermal management. (A) Temperature-dependent coatings: schematic of self-adaptive
radiative cooling coating consisting of VO2/MgF2/W tri-layer and a spectrally-selective filter, and its angle and polarization averaged
absorptivity spectrum of the bottom radiative cooler in presence of the top filter. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2018,
OSA.86 (B) Dielectric environment dependent coatings: optical Switching of porous polymer coatings as exemplified by P(VdF-HFP)
switching white to transparent (ΔTsolar = 0.74) and PE switching icehouse to greenhouse (ΔTsolar = 0.33 and ΔTLWIR = 0.64) by wetting and
drying. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2019, Cell).87 (C)–(E) mechanical force dependent coatings: (C) Schematic of the
bilayer structure consisting of a switchable PDMS top layer and carbon black particle-embedded bottom layer and typical spectral properties
of the switchable coating (Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, Wiley).47 (D) Schematic of a switchable coating consisting of PDMS
and Ag film under stretching or compression due to the mechanical strain, and Rsolar , εLWIR changing with different strains. Source:
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, Spring Nature.88 (F) Schematic of the dual-mode device at heating (left) and cooling (right)
mode consisting of dual-mode heating (Cu/Zn solar selective absorber)/cooling (PDMS/Ag cooler) material. Source: Reproduced with
permission: Copyright 2020, Spring Nature89

environment. For example, based on reversible wetting the recycling, and utilization of working liquids and the
with common liquids (such as water and alcohol) and tightness of the circulation loop should be considered in
drying, the transmittances of porous polymer coatings realistic applications.
can be switched as exemplified by P(VdF-HFP) switching Another method to switch the optical properties of a
from white to transparent (ΔTsolar = 0.74) and PE coating is based on mechanical force, which has been
switching from a greenhouse (ΔTsolar = 0.33 and ΔTLWIR widely investigated in polymer coatings owing to their
= 0.64) (Figure 13B).87 These coatings based on revers- stretchability. For example, a switching strategy was
ible wetting can achieve switchable sub-ambient radiative reported based on the dynamic cavitation of PDMS coat-
cooling by 3.2
C and above-ambient solar heating by ings that can be reversibly and continuously tuned from
21.4
C. The switching mechanism is similar to that dis- a highly porous state (Rsolar = 0.93 for cooling) to a trans-
cussed above in the solar reflectance of porous polymer parent solid (Rsolar = 0.05), while εLWIR = 0.94, with little
coatings due to the difference in refractive indices at the change due to the high absorptance of PDMS at a large
interfaces of air-polymer, liquid-polymer, or dielectric thickness (Figure 13c).47 To achieve a switchable coating
environments of porous coatings, which have also been in εLWIR , mechanical stress/strain can be applied in a thin
widely applied in color switchable display coatings by PDMS film, consisting of a PDMS grating and embedded
changing different liquids with various refractive indi- nanoparticles (Figure 13D). A dynamic tuning in εLWIR
ces.96 For the dielectric environment-dependent coating, under different strains resulted in a continuously variable
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 17 of 28

“ON”/“OFF” mode in the atmospheric LWIR window The first way to apply PDRC is to directly apply a pas-
while Rsolar = 0.9 with little changes due to the bottom sive PDRC coating on a terrestrial entity that needs to be
Ag reflector.88 To achieve switching in both Rsolar and cooled, such as the cooling roof is shown in
εLWIR , a simple switchable device was designed based on Figure 14A.98,99,101–109 Roofs in most residential buildings
a selective solar absorber (Cu-Zn) for heating and a are exposed to substantial solar radiation during the day-
PDRC coating (PDMS-Ag) for cooling by switching the time, resulting in a high roof temperature (up to 60
C).
two coatings (Figure 13E).89 Based on this switchable This heat is transferred to the living space, placing a
coating, 19.2% of the energy used for heating and cooling higher cooling load on the air conditioner. PDRC coat-
can be saved in the US, which is 1.7 times higher than ings directly covering the roof reflect a large portion of
the only cooling mode and 2.2 times higher than the only solar radiation and achieve a lower roof temperature,
heating mode. which can reduce cooling loads by 18%–93%.101,102 For
As discussed above, temperature-dependent switch- example, as shown in Figure 14B, the cooling load sav-
able coatings without any extra energy input for ings are generally higher than the heating load, resulting
switching are of great interest, and it is critical to choose in positive annual energy savings. The cities of Kunming,
suitable phase-change materials based on the demanded Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Harbin can achieve
transition temperature and spectral response in the solar energy saving rates of 9.3%, 7.1%, 4.1%, 3.3%, and 0.6%
spectrum or LWIR atmospheric window. Moreover, the due to the different climates.99
optical response of switchable coatings can be easily con- Even though the cooling in the winter period would
trolled by dielectric-environment- or mechanical force- increase the energy input while the cooling load savings
dependent coatings. However, it should be noted that the surpassed the heating load penalties. A cool roof can save
response spectra must be considered for different applica- annual cooling energy of 33–57 USD m2 for the top-
tions. For example, in the daytime, solar heating is criti- floor residential units with a short payback period
cal for thermal management, and more attention should (< 6 months).110 The annual direct CO2 reductions are
be paid to the solar spectrum for switching. For nighttime estimated to be 11–12 kg CO2 m2.104,105 The typical
performance, more efforts should be made in improving energy savings ranged from 0.1 to 8.6 kWh m2, 1.1 to
the LWIR atmospheric window. 8.2 kWh m-2, and 1.4 to 10.9 kWh m2 for residential,
office, and retail buildings, respectively based on cool
roof applications in the US.111 These results indicate that
4 | A P PL I C A T I O N S A N D the PDRC coating applied to the roof presents a potential
C H A LL E N G E S O F P D R C energy-saving way especially for buildings in Hot-Sum-
mer-Warm-Winter (HSWW) and temperate climatic
Various PDRC materials or structures have been designed regions where much cooling load is required.
with appealing optical properties; however, the design of The second approach is to develop an active system.
the cooling system needs to consider several important In active systems, a heat transfer fluid is used for space
problems, including the system configuration and controls, cooling, which is better controlled and more feasible to
cooling load profiles from end-users, the impact of weather regulate cooling power, as shown in Figure 14C,D.100
conditions, the system cost and payback period. Radiative However, these systems are more complicated, and exter-
cooling in the daytime is a potential direction to mitigate nal energy (fan or pump) is needed to transfer fluids or
the energy crisis, and its application has attracted consider- air for cooling. Active systems integrating PDRC with
able interest in recent years. In this section, we review other energy systems (such as photovoltaic-thermal,112,113
some applications of PDRC, such as space cooling, solar HVAC,114,115 and thermoelectric [TE] cooling systems116)
cell cooling, harvesting water from the atmosphere, and include air-based,98,99 open or closed-loop water-
electricity generation. based,100,117 and hybrid systems.118,119
Water-based cooling systems can be categorized into
open-loop,120 and closed-loop systems.121 The closed-loop
4.1 | Space cooling water system utilizes water as a heat transfer fluid and
dissipates the heat by a flat-plate cooling radiator, which
Space cooling (such as for buildings, cargo boxes, and is different from an open-loop water system, which dissi-
cars) consumes a significant amount of energy. For exam- pates heat through convection, radiation, and evapora-
ple, the energy used to run air conditioners and electric tion, transferring the heat from the roof to the
fans for cooling account for ~10% of the total global elec- surrounding environment through the water in the roof
tricity.97 Under favorable climates, PDRC can supply pond. The average net cooling power of water-based sys-
~80% of the cooling load of residential buildings.8,98 tems is usually higher than that of air-based
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
18 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 4 PDRC for space cooling: (A) Energy flows through a radiative roof surface. (B) Annual building energy consumptions and
savings in five typical cities: Beijing, Harbin, Hong Kong, Kunming, and Shanghai. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2021,
Elsevier.99 (C) A schematic of the piping configuration in the test set-up, highlighting the presence of an air-cooled radiator (to bring the
fluid inlet to the panels to the ambient air temperature), pump and tank. (D) Three days of data showing the temperature difference between
the outlet and inlet of the two panels at a flow rate of 0.2 L min1 m2. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2017, Spring
Nature100

systems.117,122 However, the advantage of air-based sys- solar cell (with 22% efficiency) decreases by ~0.1% when
tems is that they can provide instantaneous cooling to the temperature increases by 1
C.124 Further research
buildings at night using fans or driven by buoyancy forces. shows that the actual effective spectral range of Si-based
To combine the advantages of the above two systems, a solar cells is within 0.3–1.1 μm, while the rest of the solar
hybrid diurnal radiative cooled-cold storage cooling system energy is converted into heat, which further reduces the
was designed, which can save 26% ~ 46% of annual cooling conversion efficiency of solar cells. Therefore, thermal
electricity with an 8-year payback period.118 management is essential in photovoltaic systems. In con-
trast to space cooling, the operating temperature of solar
cells is higher than the ambient temperature; therefore,
4.2 | Solar cell cooling there is no need to suppress nonradiative heat transfer,
which is beneficial to the heat dissipation for solar cells.
Thermal management is also important for device opera- Meanwhile, the emittance of Si-based solar cells can reach
tion. For example, an increased operating temperature 85% in the LWIR transmission window because of the large
not only reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic systems absorption dip of Si near the wavelength of 9 μm.125
but also greatly reduces their lifetimes.123 Generally, the Therefore, one approach is to design a special PDRC
negative temperature coefficient of silicon solar cells is coating that can radiate heat strongly through thermal
~0.45%, which means that the efficiency of a Si-based emission and can also significantly reflect the solar
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 19 of 28

F I G U R E 1 5 PDRC for solar cell

cooling: (A) Experimental
concentrating photovoltaics setup by
applying the cheap, passive, and
lightweight PDRC coating on top of
the traditional cooling approaches.
Source: Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2020, Cell.126 (B) Schematic
of the solar absorption and thermal
radiation properties of existing solar
panels with or without cooler.
Suboptimal radiative cooling and
strong parasitic sub-band-gap
absorption are observed in existing
solar panels. With a photonic cooler
coated on top of solar panel, the
radiative cooling can be improved and
the sub-band-gap solar radiation can
be strongly reflected. Source:
Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2017, ACS)127

radiation in the sub-band-gap and ultraviolet regimes in the open-circuit voltage for GaSb cells and a predicted
(Figure 15A). Applying this cooler to a solar panel has lifetime extension of 4 to 15 times.126
been experimentally shown to reduce the Si-based cell
temperature by over 5.7
C.127 However, it has thus far
been difficult to commercialize photonic selectively 4.3 | Harvesting water from the
reflecting structures because of the cost and immature atmosphere
processing technology of photonic structures. Another
approach is to using PDRC to remove excess waste heat Due to population growth and industrial development,
from solar cells is straightforward, and can be achieved the availability of fresh water has become a serious prob-
by placing a thin-layer PDRC coating.128–130 For example, lem in arid and humid areas of the world.131 Utilizing
a direct method to apply a common PDRC coating on top radiative cooling coatings to harvest more water from the
of the solar cells (Figure 15B) was reported. A tempera- atmosphere can relieve the problem without any energy
ture drop of 36
C for concentration photovoltaic was input.132 Dew collection technology uses an ultracold
demonstrated experimentally, leading to a 27% increase outer space to radiatively cool a surface below the dew
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
20 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

F I G U R E 1 6 PDRC for water harvesting from atmosphere: (A) to (C) Performances of convective condenser and radiative condenser:
(A) and (B) Schematic of a convective condenser (A) and our radiative condenser (B). The convective condenser dissipates heat through only
convection, while the radiative condenser dissipates heat through both convection and radiation. (c) Theoretically calculated condensation
rates of the convective (black) and radiative condenser (red), assuming an ambient temperature of 20
C. To analyze the theoretical upper
bound of condensation rate, we assume a relative humidity of 100% throughout our calculation. Source: Reproduced with permission:
Copyright 2021, PNAS133 (D) Relative humidity dependence of the mass flux of dew-harvesting for three different emitters under two
representative scenarios: h = 2 W m2 K1 and 8 W m2 K1. The near-ideal emitter (blue) surpasses its blackbody counterpart (black) in
both scenarios. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, Taylor & Francis.134 (E) Condensation on a hydrophilic directional
slippery, rough surface. Smaller droplets move into the slippery microchannels, and larger droplets can be effectively drained away by the
slippery microchannels. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2018, AAAS135

point and condenses water vapor from the atmosphere. gradient inside the water-harvesting system, further facil-
This passive technology has great potential for freshwater itating the water-production cycle.
harvesting because of the significant amount of water To improve the PDRC condenser performance,
vapor stored in the atmosphere. research has been widely conducted on condenser
Compared with convective condensers, the daytime coatings,136–139 and meteorological parameters.134,140 The
radiative condenser utilizes both convection and radia- upper limit of the performance of this technology was
tion for cooling and thus can substantially improve the calculated theoretically as shown in Figure 16D.134 When
condensation rate, as shown in Figure 16A,B. For exam- a blackbody emitter is used, a condenser consisting of a
ple, at the most favorable condition for the convective selective emitter can condense water vapor under highly
condenser (black solid line in Figure 16C), the condensa- arid conditions. In addition, multifunctional coatings that
tion rate of the radiative condenser almost doubles that are favorable for both droplet nucleation and removal are
of the convective condenser, reaching 2.5 L m2 h1 (red also highly desirable for harvesting water from the atmo-
solid curve in Figure 16C), well above the theoretical sphere. For example, a hydrophilic directional slippery
limit of the one-sun evaporation rate.133 Such a high con- rough surface was developed for rapid droplet nucleation
densation rate will also increase the vapor pressure and water removal, as shown in Figure 16E.135 Coupling
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
CHEN ET AL. 21 of 28

the PDRC performance with multifunctional surfaces can dark space (Figure 17A).143 Furthermore, an high electri-
motivate the development of better radiative coolers for cal power density > 2 W m2 was achieved using a
dew-harvesting applications. spectro-angular-selective emitter (Figure 17B),144 which
was close to the Carnot thermodynamic limit. These
results show that it is significant to optimize the emitter
4.4 | Electricity generation to enhance the power density for electricity generation
based on radiative cooling.
The ability of the PDRC coating to passively maintain a Another way is to generate electricity throughout the
surface below ambient air temperature is also useful for day based on TE, as shown in Figure 17C.145 A selective
electricity generation, which converts the temperature emitter (high reflectance/low emittance in the solar spec-
difference into usable electricity based on a TE generator. trum and high emittance in the atmospheric LWIR win-
TE generators have attracted great attention in the past dow) is placed on the TE device. In addition, the top
two decades to recover usable power from waste heat or surface of the TE generator is always cooled due to the
solar heating.141,142 In contrast, PDRC technology can PDRC all the time. Therefore, continuous TE generation
provide a cold source and integrate with the TE model to was maintained. On the contrary, if a broadband emitter
generate electricity, which is unlike traditional TE (high emittance/absorptance in both solar spectrum and
generators. atmospheric LWIR window) is placed on the TE device,
The cooling effect in PDRC can be combined with TE the broadband emitter will be heated in the daytime by
to generate electricity at night when photovoltaic systems solar absorption while be cooled in the nighttime by ther-
do not work. Generating electricity at night can be used mal radiation through the atmospheric window. Hence,
in a wide range of applications, such as sensors and light- the top temperature gradually increases from night to
ing. For example, a commercial TE generator was com- morning and the temperature difference will become
bined with the radiative cooling coating at night zero, which also can be observed as the time shifts from
experimentally to achieve a power generation of day to evening. At these moments, the output of the TE
25 mW m2, which can be used to the lighting in the generation becomes zero. In addition, the weather

F I G U R E 1 7 Radiative cooling for electricity generation. (A) Schematic of the low-cost night-time TE generator device and its key
components. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2019, Cell.143 (B) Proposed system for optimal power generation at nighttime.
Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, OAS.144 (C) Conceptual drawing of TE devices having a wavelength selective emitter
(SE) and a broadband emitter (BE) on the top. When an SE is on the top, the top temperature is always cooler than the bottom, and the sign
of the TE voltage does not change; however, when a BE is on the top, the top is hotter and cooler than the bottom in daytime and nighttime,
respectively. Thus, the generated TE voltage changes its sign. Source: Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, AIP145
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22 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

changes, such as clouds, also would reduce the output to the design of polymer-based PDRC coatings still requires
zero. Therefore, for continuous electricity generation further research, and most PDRC coatings can improve
based on radiative cooling, the temperature difference their cooling performance through structural optimiza-
generated in the daytime should be considered cautiously tion. The low cooling power density of PDRC requires
from the stable electricity generation, sign change, and large areas to meet the cooling load, which also increases
electric/voltage intensity based on different applications. the cost of the PDRC system. Simultaneously, the dura-
bility and stability of PDRC materials are also an impor-
tant challenge. Various aspects should be considered for
4.5 | Challenges durabilities, such as stability against moisture, oxygen,
ultraviolet light, and dust. For polymer-based coatings, it
In addition to the applications discussed above, other is difficult to maintain high solar reflectance because of
PDRC applications (such as water cooling,33 power plant the degradation of the polymer and metal solar-reflective
condenser cooling,146 and human body cooling147,148) layer. Transparent varnishes can be covered above the
have also gained considerable attention. However, the cooling coating to alleviate this problem.12 In addition,
commercialization of PDRC technologies has many waste management/disposal, low energy density, and
potential challenges that need to be considered, such as mechanical stability must be considered in practical
climate, cost, performance, and durability. applications.
To identify the effect of climates on the large-scale
deployment of PDRC, a world map of annual PDRC
potential is shown in Figure 18. The PDRC potential is 5 | CONCLUSION
dependent on the location due to the regional climates.24
A dry and hot climate is good for the PDRC applications PDRC technologies that do not consume external energy
with a higher cooling power of >120 W m2. On the con- have evolved rapidly in recent years and have gained con-
trary, A cold, highly humid, or cloudy climate would lead siderable attention in both scientific and industrial com-
to a much lower cooling potential. The wide adoption of munities. Scalable-manufactured PDRC coatings, such as
PDRC materials in regions with high cooling potentials paintings, can be applied on a large scale. Simulta-
not only improves building thermal management both neously, the performance of PDRC can be further
day and night but also reduces the extra structure for roof improved by geometric optimization or system engineer-
insulation or solar shading in these areas. ing. Furthermore, the integration of PDRC with new
Low cost is an important factor and is related to low- functionalities, such as a wide range of colors, switchable
cost materials and easy availability and manufacturing and self-cleaning properties, could help to expand PDRC
processes. Employing precious metals (Ag or Al) as solar applications. PDRC technologies have been widely
reflective layers, complex manufacturing processes, as applied for space cooling, removing excess waste heat
well as valuable materials, would increase the cost. Poly- from solar cells, harvesting water from the atmosphere,
mers have gained considerable attention because of their and generating electricity. However, performances other
price advantage. However, to meet different applications, than cooling performance, such as cost, durability, and
low energy density, should also be considered in real
applications. With the increasing energy and environ-
mental challenges, PDRC shows great potential for
reducing the energy consumption of cooling, alleviating
the urban heat island effect, and solving water and envi-
ronmental problems soon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Meijie Chen would like to acknowledge the financial sup-
port from the Central South University and the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
F I G U R E 1 8 Global radiative cooling potential based on the global
No. 52006246). Yuan Yang acknowledges support from
meteorological datasets collected between 2015 and 2019, including the National Science Foundation (Award No. 2005747).
rainy and cloudy weather conditions. It uses an ideal wavelength-
selective radiative cooling material with 5% solar absorbance. Source: CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2020, AAAS24 The authors declare no conflict of interest.
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
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118(14):e2019292118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2019292118
134. Dong M, Zhang Z, Shi Y, Zhao X, Fan S, Chen Z. Fundamen- Meijie Chen is an Associate Profes-
tal limits of the dew-harvesting technology. Nanoscale
sor in the School of Energy Science
Microscale Thermophys Eng. 2020;24(1):43-52. doi:10.10
80/15567265.2020.1722300
and Engineering at Central South
135. Dai X, Sun N, Nielsen SO, et al. Hydrophilic directional slip- University. He received his BEng,
pery rough surfaces for water harvesting. Sci Adv. 2018;4(3): MEng, and PhD degrees from School
eaaq0919. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaq0919 of Energy Science and Engineering at
136. Benlattar M, Laatioui S, Oualim EM, Mazroui M, Mouhsen A, Harbin Institute of Technology in
Harmouchi M. Numerical modelling of lawsonite thin film as 2014, 2016, and 2019, respectively. He was a Visiting
radiative cooling minerals for dew harvesting. Results Phys.
graduate student at Columbia University funded by
2017;7:1959-1964. doi:10.1016/j.rinp.2017.05.024
CSC in 2018. His research interests are in the
137. Maestre-Valero JF, Martin-Gorriz B, Martínez-Alvarez V.
Dew condensation on different natural and artificial passive photothermal conversion, transport, storage, and
surfaces in a semiarid climate. J Arid Environ. 2015;116:63-70. applications.
doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.02.002
Dan Pang received her Bachelor
138. Al-Khayat O, Hong JK, Beck DM, Minett AI, Neto C. Pat-
terned polymer coatings increase the efficiency of dew
degrees from Centre South Univer-
harvesting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017;9(15):13676- sity in 2020. She is now a master stu-
13684. doi:10.1021/acsami.6b16248 dent at Centre South University. Her
139. Guan H, Sebben M, Bennett J. Radiative- and artificial-cooling research interests include radiative
enhanced dew collection in a coastal area of South Australia. cooling and nanoscale thermal
Urban Water J. 2014;11(3):175-184. doi:10.1080/1573062X. management.
2013.765494
140. Liu C, Fan J, Bao H. Hydrophilic radiative cooler for direct Xingyu Chen received her Master
water condensation in humid weather. Sol Energy Mater Sol degrees from Centre South University
Cells. 2020;216:110700. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2020.110700 in 2019. She is now a PhD student at
141. Chen M, Yan H, Zhou P, Chen XY. Performance analysis of Centre South University. Her research
solar thermophotovoltaic system with selective abso-
interests include heat and mass trans-
rber/emitter. J Quant Spectrosc Radiat Transf. 2020;253:788-
fer of nanofluids, solar thermal conver-
798. doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107163
142. Chen M, Chen X, Yan H, Zhou P. Theoretical design of sion, and radiative cooling.
nanoparticle-based spectrally emitter for thermophotovoltaic Hongjie Yan is a Professor in the
applications. Phys E Low-Dimensional Syst Nanostructures.
School of Energy Science and Engi-
2021;126:114471. doi:10.1016/j.physe.2020.114471
neering at Central South University.
143. Raman AP, Li W, Fan S. Generating light from darkness.
Joule. 2019;3(11):2679-2686. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2019.08.009 He received his BEng and PhD degrees
144. Fan L, Li W, Jin W, Orenstein M, Fan S. Maximal nighttime from School of Energy Science and
electrical power generation via optimal radiative cooling. Opt Engineering at Central South Univer-
Express. 2020;28(17):25460-25470. doi:10.1364/oe.397714 sity in 1999 and 2005. His research
145. Ishii S, Dao TD, Nagao T. Radiative cooling for continuous interests are multiphase fluid, computational fluid
thermoelectric power generation in day and night. Appl Phys dynamics, and energy saving in industrial processes.
Lett. 2020;117(1):013901. doi:10.1063/5.0010190
146. Zhang K, Zhao D, Zhai Y, Yin X, Yang R, Tan G. Modelling Yuan Yang is an Associate Professor
study of the low-pump-power demand constructal T-shaped in the Department of Applied Physics
pipe network for a large scale radiative cooled-cold storage and Applied Mathematics, Columbia
system. Appl Therm Eng. 2017;127:1564-1573. doi:10.1016/j.
University. He received his BS in
applthermaleng.2017.08.131
physics from Peking University in
147. Hsu PC, Song AY, Catrysse PB, et al. Radiative human body
cooling by nanoporous polyethylene textile. Science. 2016; 2007 and his PhD in materials sci-
353(6303):1019-1023. doi:10.1126/science.aaf5471 ence and engineering from Stanford
 25673173, 2022, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eom2.12153, Wiley Online Library on [06/12/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
28 of 28 CHEN ET AL.

University in 2012. Then he worked as a postdoctoral How to cite this article: Chen M, Pang D,
researcher at MIT for 3 years. His research interests Chen X, Yan H, Yang Y. Passive daytime radiative
include electrochemical energy storage, conversion, cooling: Fundamentals, material designs, and
and thermal management. applications. EcoMat. 2022;4(1):e12153.
doi:10.1002/eom2.12153