Bioinspired Polymer Films with Surface Ordered Pyramid Arrays and 3D Hierarchical Pores for Enhanced Passive Radiative Cooling

Abstract

Passive radiative cooling (PRC) has been acknowledged to be an environmentally friendly cooling technique, and especially artificial photonic materials with manipulating light–matter interaction ability are more favorable for PRC. However, scalable production of radiative cooling materials with advanced biologically inspired structures, fascinating properties, and high throughput is still challenging. Herein, we reported a bioinspired design combining surface ordered pyramid arrays and internal three-dimensional hierarchical pores for highly efficient PRC based on mimicking natural photonic structures of the white beetle Cyphochilus’ wings. The biological photonic film consisting of surface ordered pyramid arrays with a bottom side length of 4 μm together with amounts of internal nano- and micropores was fabricated by using scalable phase separation and a quick hot-pressing process. Optimization of pore structures and surface-enhanced photonic arrays enables the bioinspired film to possess an average solar reflectance of ∼98% and a high infrared emissivity of ∼96%. A temperature drop of ∼8.8 °C below the ambient temperature is recorded in the daytime. Besides the notable PRC capability, the bioinspired film exhibits excellent flexibility, strong mechanical strength, and hydrophobicity; therefore, it can be applied in many complex outdoor scenarios. This work provides a highly efficient and mold replication-like route to develop highly efficient passive cooling devices.