On-Demand Solar and Thermal Radiation Management Based on Switchable Interwoven Surfaces
Yujie Ke, Yanbin Li, Lichen Wu, Shancheng Wang, Ronggui Yang, Jie Yin, Gang Tan, Yi Long
Abstract
On-demand and selective regulation of the radiative cooling (long-wave infrared, LWIR) and solar heat gain (ultraviolet-, visible- and near-IR, UV–vis–NIR) of building facades is a grand challenge but essential to decrease energy usage in buildings. Here, we report a reconfigurable interwoven surface that can dynamically switch the overlapping sequence to achieve spectral selectivity and ultrabroadband modulations for windows, walls/roofs with decent spectral modulations, and energy-saving performance. The result surpasses the best reported passive radiative cooling smart windows with a more than doubled visible transmittance (Tlum = 0.50) and LWIR modulation (Δ εLWIR = 0.57). Our energy-saving samples outperform the commercial building materials across climate zones 2–6. This design principle is scalable and applicable for diverse materials, interwoven structures, and 2D-3D surfaces, which provide a strategy to give programmable heating/cooling modulations in various applications.