Volume 19, Issue 39 2301957
Research Article

Scalable Bacterial Cellulose-Based Radiative Cooling Materials with Switchable Transparency for Thermal Management and Enhanced Solar Energy Harvesting

Shukuan Shi

Shukuan Shi

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

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Pengfei Lv

Pengfei Lv

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

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Cristian Valenzuela

Cristian Valenzuela

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

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Binxuan Li

Binxuan Li

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

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Yuan Liu

Yuan Liu

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

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Ling Wang

Corresponding Author

Ling Wang

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

E-mail: [email protected] (L.W.); [email protected] (W.F.)

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Wei Feng

Corresponding Author

Wei Feng

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, Tianjin, 300350 P. R. China

E-mail: [email protected] (L.W.); [email protected] (W.F.)

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First published: 25 May 2023
Citations: 15

Abstract

Radiative cooling materials that can dynamically control solar transmittance and emit thermal radiation into cold outer space are critical for smart thermal management and sustainable energy-efficient buildings. This work reports the judicious design and scalable fabrication of biosynthetic bacterial cellulose (BC)-based radiative cooling (Bio-RC) materials with switchable solar transmittance, which are developed by entangling silica microspheres with continuously secreted cellulose nanofibers during in situ cultivation. Theresulting film shows a high solar reflection (95.3%) that can be facilely switched between an opaque state and a transparent state upon wetting. Interestingly, the Bio-RC film exhibits a high mid-infrared emissivity (93.4%) and an average sub-ambient temperature drop of ≈3.7 °C at noon. When integrating with a commercially available semi-transparent solar cell, the switchable solar transmittance of Bio-RC film enables an enhancement of solar power conversion efficiency (opaque state: 0.92%, transparent state: 0.57%, bare solar cell: 0.33%). As a proof-of-concept illustration, an energy-efficient model house with its roof built with Bio-RC-integrated semi-transparent solar cell is demonstrated. This research can shine new light on the design and emerging applications of advanced radiative cooling materials.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.