Radiative cooling surfaces: principles, performance evaluation and applications

Abstract

With the crisis of greenhouse gases resulting in global warming, radiative cooling can assuage the need to keep cool without any adverse footprints. Radiative cooling is a heat transfer phenomenon in which entities dissipate heat directly into deep space without any effort or requiring input energy. It has been a well-known worldwide phenomenon for nocturnal heat transfer to dissipate heat into deep space. In recent years, however, its potential for cooling during the day leads to be considered as a possible method to mitigate the energy shortage, and it also can benefit the entire world's environment. Radiative cooling materials have leaped with the rapid advancement of nanotechnology. In this review paper, radiative cooling is comprehensively represented with regard to the principle of radiative cooling, energy balance, optimization, and various applications. In the first section, the basic principle of heat transfer mechanisms, which engage simultaneously in radiative cooling surface (RCS), are considered and elaborated. Then various approaches were surveyed to improve the performance of radiative cooling surfaces to outline possible pathways of its development in terms of cooling performance and commercial application. And finally, the application of RCS is discussed to explain the benefits of employing them. This review also makes it possible to researchers to develop the RCS for further upgrade, and the prospect of this subject reviews the major features in summary for further future studies.