Advancing thermal comfort: an innovative SiO2 microsphere-decorated shish-kebab film composite for enhanced personal cooling

Abstract

Due to the energy crisis and global warming, personal passive radiative cooling has gained increasingly more attention. However, the development of radiative cooling films with high performance and durability is still facing crucial challenges. Herein, a SiO2 microspheres-decorated shish-kebab film composite (SSKFC) has been developed in this work by a spraying technique, which not only has high emissivity within the atmospheric window (8–13 μm), but also possesses transparency in the remaining mid-infrared band and high reflectivity towards solar radiation (0.3–2.5 μm). As a result, SSKFC is capable of achieving effective personal radiative cooling both outdoors (under different weather) and indoors (lowering the temperature by ~ 4.1 °C compared to the cotton). Additionally, the film design shows excellent superhydrophobicity under various solvents. Given the spectral selectivity, personal cooling performance and self-cleaning property, SSKFC present substantial advantages for personal thermal management.