Beyond cooling: Radiative cooling for sustainable thermal management in skin-interface healthcare

The increasing frequency of extreme heat events and the growing demand for sustainable thermal management strategies have stimulated the development of energy-efficient approaches for skin-interface systems. Passive radiative cooling, which simultaneously reflects solar irradiation and dissipates thermal energy through infrared emission within the atmospheric transparency window (8– 13 μ m ), provides an energy-free approach for regulating local thermal microenvironments. In this perspective, we introduce the fundamental principles and material platforms of radiative cooling technologies and highlight their recent advances in healthcare applications, including personal thermal management, wound healing, and skin-interfaced bioelectronic systems. Despite significant progress, the application of radiative cooling technologies in skin-interface healthcare still faces challenges associated with material safety, scalable fabrication, mechanical durability, environmental adaptability, and multifunctional integration. Future development should focus on artificial intelligence-assisted material design, dynamic thermal regulation, and multifunctional integration to enable next-generation healthcare platforms. This perspective aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential of radiative cooling technologies in advancing sustainable thermal management for next-generation skin-interface healthcare and promote their evolution toward adaptive and intelligent biomedical systems.