Core-shell microspheres hybridized membrane for light emitting and radiative cooling

Tremendous effort has been put into radiative cooling for its great potential of alleviating energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. However, there remains a big challenge to tackle the puzzle of combining the color display and radiative cooling with scalable and simplified membrane structure. Here, we report a novel monolayered hybrid membrane (MHM) using dielectric core-shell microsphere-embedded polydimethylsiloxane to achieve luminescence and radiative cooling bifunctionality. The dielectric shell constructed through the zinc ion diffusion upon the surface of spheric silica serves as both color display and infrared radiative improvement, while the core-shell structure provides high-efficient light scattering pathway, allowing enhancement of solar reflection. We show that the fabricated MHM exhibits a high solar reflectivity of 93 % and infrared emissivity over 0.96. Under typical outdoor environment with the solar intensity over 800 W m(-2), such MHM can achieve a sub-ambient temperature drop of 7.8 ? with the mainstream method and 3.9 ? with the Stevenson screen one. More interestingly, the dielectric shell enables the MHM with a brilliant green coloration, potential UV resistance, and certain aesthetic purposes. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.