Hierarchical-morphology metafabric for scalable passive daytime radiative cooling

Shaoning Zeng; Sijie Pian; Minyu Su; Zhuning Wang; Maoqi Wu; Xinhang Liu; Mingyue Chen; Yuanzhuo Xiang; Jiawei Wu; Manni Zhang; Qingqing Cen; Yuwei Tang; Xianheng Zhou; Zhiheng Huang; Rui Wang; Alitenai Tunuhe; Xiyu Sun; Zhigang Xia; Mingwei Tian; Min Chen; Xiao Ma; Lvyun Yang; Jun Zhou; Huamin Zhou; Qing Yang; Xin Li; Yaoguang Ma; Guangming Tao

doi:10.1126/science.abi5484

Hierarchical-morphology metafabric for scalable passive daytime radiative cooling

Science. 2021 Aug 6;373(6555):692-696. doi: 10.1126/science.abi5484. Epub 2021 Jul 8.

Authors

Shaoning Zeng^#¹, Sijie Pian^#², Minyu Su¹, Zhuning Wang², Maoqi Wu^{1

3}, Xinhang Liu², Mingyue Chen³, Yuanzhuo Xiang¹, Jiawei Wu¹, Manni Zhang¹, Qingqing Cen², Yuwei Tang², Xianheng Zhou², Zhiheng Huang¹, Rui Wang¹, Alitenai Tunuhe¹, Xiyu Sun³, Zhigang Xia⁴, Mingwei Tian⁵, Min Chen⁶, Xiao Ma⁷, Lvyun Yang¹, Jun Zhou¹, Huamin Zhou⁸, Qing Yang², Xin Li⁷, Yaoguang Ma⁹, Guangming Tao¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, International Research Center for Advanced Photonics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
³ iFabric Lab, TD Energy, Inc., Weifang 261500, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China.
⁵ Research Center for Intelligent and Wearable Technology, College of Textiles and Clothing, State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fibers and Eco-Textiles, Intelligent Wearable Engineering Research Center of Qingdao, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
⁶ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Computer Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Biobased Fiber Manufacturing Technology, China Textile Academy, Beijing 110105, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die and Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, International Research Center for Advanced Photonics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. tao@hust.edu.cn mayaoguang@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. tao@hust.edu.cn mayaoguang@zju.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34353954
DOI: 10.1126/science.abi5484

Abstract

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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't