Realization of an Adaptive Radiative Cooler with a Multilayer-Filter VO_(2)-Based Fabry-Pérot Cavity

A high-performance adaptive radiative cooler comprising a multilayer-filter VO_(2)-based Fabry-Pérot(FP)cavity is proposed.The bottom FP cavity has four layers,VO_(2)/NaCl/PVC/Ag.Based on the phase transition of VO_(2),the average emissivity in the transparent window can be switched from 3.7%to 96.3%.Additionally,the average emissivity can also be adjusted with external strain to the PVC layer,providing another way to attain the desired cooling effect.An upper filter is included to block most of the solar radiation and provide a transmittance of 96.7% in the atmospheric window.At high temperature,the adaptive emitter automatically activates radiative cooling.The net cooling power is up to 156.4 W·m^(-2)at an ambient temperature of 303 K.Our adaptive emitter still exhibits stable selective emissivity at different incident angles and heat transfer coefficients.At low temperature,the radiative cooling automatically deactivates,and the average emissivity decreases to only 3.8%.Therefore,our work not only provides new insights into the design of high-performance adaptive radiative coolers but also advances the development of intelligent thermal management.

Ultra-Broadband Thermal Emitter for Daytime Radiative Cooling with Metal-Insulator-Metal Metamaterials

A novel thermal emitter with metal-insulator-metal design is proposed to realize efficient daytime radiative cooling.It can achieve ultrahigh absorption of 99.67%in the first atmospheric window and strong reflection of94.86%in solar band.Analysis on the cooling performance with different real and imaginary parts of refractive index is carried out to provide a guide line in the material choice.As a case study,three inorganic materials are substituted to get enhanced absorption and it is verified that the refractive index matching is desirable to obtain high absorption.In addition,such high emissivity persists under different incident angles in both TE and TM modes.A net cooling power of 96.39 W/m^(2)is achieved in the daytime with the incorporation of convection coefficients.Finally,this thermal emitter achieves an average temperature drop of 5.1℃based on the solution of conduction equation at 300 K.Therefore,our design with an excellent cooling ability can further bolster development in managements of radiative cooling or thermal radiation.

Efficient realization of daytime radiative cooling with hollow zigzag SiO_(2) metamaterials

A tunable selective emitter with hollow zigzag SiO_(2) metamaterials, which are deposited on Si_(3) N_(4) and Ag film, is proposed and numerically investigated for achieving excellent radiative cooling effects. The average emissivity reaches a high value of 98.7% in the atmospheric window and possesses a high reflectivity of 92.0% in the solar spectrum. To reveal the enhanced absorptivity, the confined electric field distribution is investigated, and it can be well explained by moth eye effects. Moreover, tunable emissivity can also be initiated with different incident angles and it stays above 83% when the incident angle is less than 80°, embodying the excellent cooling performance in the atmospheric transparency window.Its net cooling power achieves 100.6 W·m^(-2), with a temperature drop of 13°, and the cooling behavior can persist in the presence of non-radiative heat exchange conditions. Therefore, high and tunable selective emitters based on our designed structure could provide a new route to realizing high-performance radiative cooling. This work is also of great significance for saving energy and environmental protection.