Facilely fabricated polyethylene film composed of directional microfibrils for passive radiative cooling

Nowadays, passive radiative cooling (PRC) has being attracted intensive attention because it can realize cooling effect without consuming any energy. Unfortunately, fabricating polymer film with radiative cooling effect by a facile, continuous and environmentally friendly method is still a large challenge. In this study, high density polyethylene (HDPE)/polyvinyl oxide (PEO) film were first fabricated by melt extrusion casting method, and polyethylene film composed of directional microfibrils (PFCDM) were finally obtained after selective dissolution of PEO phase in deionized water at 70 °C. The as-prepared PFCDM shows higher average solar reflectivity of 85.17% in the visible range and stronger average mid-infrared emissivity of 82.04% within the atmospheric window. It shows a sub-ambient cooling of 23.28 °C during the day and 3.1 °C at night, suggesting that it has a remarkable PRC performance. Moreover, the as-prepared PFCDM has outstanding wearability and self-cleaning property, showing promising potential of personal thermal management. This study proposes a facile but environmentally friendly method for fabricating PFCDM, paving a new way to develop wearable PRC film following the concept of thermoplastic polymers “functionalized” processing.