Photothermal-Management Agricultural Films Toward Industrial Planting: Opportunities and Challenges
Song Zhang, Zhang Chen, Chuanxiang Cao, Yuanyuan Cui, Yanfeng Gao
Abstract
As indispensable parts of greenhouses and plant factories, agricultural covering films play a prominent role in regulating microclimate environments. Polyethylene covering films directly transmit the full solar spectrum. However, this high level of sunlight transmission may be inappropriate or even harmful for crops with specific photothermal requirements. Modern greenhouses are integrated with agricultural covering materials, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and smart irrigation and communication technologies to maximize planting efficiency. This review provides insight into the photothermal requirements of crops and ways to meet these requirements, including new materials based on passive radiative cooling and light scattering, simulations to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental conditions in a greenhouse, and data mining to identify key biological growth factors and thereby improve new covering films. Finally, future challenges and directions for photothermal-management agricultural films are elaborated on to bridge the gap between lab-scale research and large-scale practical applications.