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Register a new userMechanical Deformation Induced Continuously Variable Emission for Radiative Cooling
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Passive radiative cooling drawing the heat energy of objects to the cold outer space through the atmospheric transparent window (8 um - 13 um) is significant for reducing the energy consumption of buildings. Daytime and nighttime radiative cooling have been extensively investigated in the past. However, radiative cooling which can continuously regulate its cooling temperature, like a valve, according to human need is rarely reported. In this study, we present a concept of reconfigurable photonic structure for the adaptive radiative cooling by continuously varying the emission spectra in the atmospheric window region. This is realized by the deformation of the one-dimensional PDMS grating and the nanoparticles embedded PDMS thin film when subjected to mechanical strain. The proposed structure reaches different stagnation temperatures under certain strains. A dynamic exchange between two different strains results in the fluctuation of the photonic structures temperature around a set temperature.
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A fundamental limit of current radiative cooling systems is that only the top surface facing deep-space can provide the radiative cooling effect, while the bottom surface cannot. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a concept of concentrated radiative cooling by nesting a radiative cooling system in a mid-infrared reflective trough, so that the lower surface, which does not contribute to radiative cooling in previous systems, can radiate heat to deep-space via the reflective trough. Field experiments show that the temperature drop of a radiative cooling pipe with the trough is more than double that of the standalone radiative cooling pipe. Furthermore, by integrating the concentrated radiative cooling system as a preconditioner in an air conditioning system, we predict electricity savings of $>75%$ in Phoenix, AZ, and $>80%$ in Reno, NV, for a single-story commercial building.
Thermal management has become a promising field in recent years due to the limitation of energy resources and the global warming. An important topic in improving the efficiency of thermal energy utilization is how to control the flows of heat, and thermal rectifiers, such as the thermal transistor, have been proposed as units for modulating the flow of heat. In this work, a reconfigurable non-contact thermal transistor with two-dimensional grating is introduced. The thermal transistor consists of three parts: source, gate, and drain, with the gate working around the phase-transition temperature of vanadium dioxide, a type of phase-transition material. Results show that the unit has a clear transistor-like behavior. The surface phonon/plasmon polaritons supported by the insulating/metallic states that contribute to the radiative thermal transport can be modulated at a nanoscale separation. And the dynamic amplification factor ranges from 15.4 to 30.6 when the stretchable polydimethylsiloxane is subjected to tension or compression. This work sheds light on studies about the controllable small-scale thermal transport due to mechanical deformations.
Energy-saving cooling materials with strong operability are desirable towards sustainable thermal management. Inspired by the cooperative thermo-optical effect in fur of polar bear, we develop a flexible and reusable cooling skin via laminating a polydimethylsiloxane film with a highly-scattering polyethylene aerogel. Owing to its high porosity of 97.9% and tailored pore size of 3.8 +- 1.4 micrometers, superior solar reflectance of 0.96 and high transparency to irradiated thermal energy of 0.8 can be achieved at a thickness of 2.7 mm. Combined with low thermal conductivity of 0.032 W/m/K of the aerogel, the cooling skin exerts midday sub-ambient temperature drops of 5-6 degrees in a metropolitan environment, with an estimated limit of 14 degrees under ideal service conditions. We envision that this generalized bilayer approach will construct a bridge from night-time to daytime radiative cooling and pave the way for economical, scalable, flexible and reusable cooling materials.
The radiative cooling of objects during daytime under direct sunlight has recently been shown to be significantly enhanced by utilizing nanophotonic coatings. Multilayer thin film stacks, 2D photonic crystals, etc. as coating structures improved the thermal emission rate of a device in the infrared atmospheric transparency window reducing considerably devices temperature. Due to the increased heating in photovoltaic (PV) devices, that has significant adverse consequences on both their efficiency and life-time, and inspired by the recent advances in daytime radiative cooling, we developed a coupled thermal-electrical modeling to examine the physical mechanisms on how a radiative cooler affects the overall efficiency of commercial photovoltaic modules. Employing this modeling, which takes into account all the major processes affected by the temperature variation in a PV device, we evaluated the relative impact of the main radiative cooling approaches proposed so far on the PV efficiency, and we established required conditions for optimized radiative cooling. Moreover, we identified the validity regimes of the currently existing PV-cooling models which treat the PV coolers as simple thermal emitters. Finally, we assessed some realistic photonic coolers from the literature, compatible with photovoltaics, to implement the radiative cooling requirements, and demonstrated their associated impact on the temperature reduction and PV efficiency. Providing the physical mechanisms and requirements for cooling radiatively solar cells, our study provides guidelines for utilizing suitable photonic structures as radiative coolers, enhancing the efficiency and the lifetime of PV devices.
Radiative cooling is a passive cooling technology that offers great promises to reduce space cooling cost, combat the urban island effect and alleviate the global warming. To achieve passive daytime radiative cooling, current state-of-the-art solutions often utilize complicated multilayer structures or a reflective metal layer, limiting their applications in many fields. Attempts have been made to achieve passive daytime radiative cooling with single-layer paints, but they often require a thick coating or show partial daytime cooling. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate remarkable full daytime sub-ambient cooling performance with both BaSO4 nanoparticle films and BaSO4 nanocomposite paints. BaSO4 has a high electron bandgap for low solar absorptance and phonon resonance at 9 um for high sky window emissivity. With an appropriate particle size and a broad particle size distribution, BaSO4 nanoparticle film reaches an ultra-high solar reflectance of 97.6% and high sky window emissivity of 0.96. During field tests, BaSO4 film stays more than 4.5C below ambient temperature or achieves average cooling power of 117 W/m2. BaSO4-acrylic paint is developed with 60% volume concentration to enhance the reliability in outdoor applications, achieving solar reflectance of 98.1% and sky window emissivity of 0.95. Field tests indicate similar cooling performance to the BaSO4 films. Overall, our BaSO4-acrylic paint shows standard figure of merit of 0.77 which is among the highest of radiative cooling solutions, while providing great reliability, the convenient paint form, ease of use and the compatibility with commercial paint fabrication process.
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