Accelerating vapor condensation with daytime radiative cooling

Abstract

Vapor condensation plays a crucial role in solar water-purification technologies. Conventional condensers in solar water-purification systems do not provide sufficient cooling power for vapor condensation, limiting the water production rate to 0.4 L m^-2 hour^-1. On the other hand, radiative dew condensation, a technique used by existing radiative dew condensers, only works at nighttime and is incompatible with solar water-purification technologies. Here, we develop daytime radiative condensers that reflect almost all solar radiation, and can thus create dew water even in direct sunlight. Compared to stateof- art condensers, our daytime radiative condenser doubles the production of purified water over a 24-hour period.