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Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) is an emerging sustainable technology that can spontaneously radiate heat to outer space through an atmospheric transparency window to achieve self-cooling. PDRC has attracted considerable attention and shows great potential for personal thermal management (PTM). However, PDRC polymers are limited to polyethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride, and their derivatives. In this study, a series of polymer films based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and their composite films with silica aerogels (aerogel-functionalized TPU (AFTPU)) are prepared using a simple and scalable non-solvent-phase-separation strategy. The TPU and AFTPU films are freestanding, mechanically strong, show high solar reflection up to 94%, and emit strongly in the atmospheric transparency window, thereby achieving subambient cooling of 10.0 and 7.7 °C on a hot summer day for the TPU and AFTPU film (10 wt%), respectively. The AFTPU films can be used as waterproof and moisture permeable coatings for traditional textiles, such as cotton, polyester, and nylon, and the highest temperature drop of 17.6 °C is achieved with respect to pristine nylon fabric, in which both the cooling performance and waterproof properties are highly desirable for the PTM applications. This study opens up a promising route for designing common polymers for highly efficient PDRC.
Shan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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