Cellulose Metamaterials with Hetero-Profiled Topology via Structure Rearrangement During Ball Milling for Daytime Radiative Cooling

Passive radiative cooling is a zero-energy consumption approach, which can dissipate heat to outer space by emitting infrared radiation through the transparency window. Traditional cooling materials, such as photonic films, metafabrics, and polymer foams, still suffer from complex preparation processes and high costs. In this work, it is reported that natural cellulose can be converted into a "green" optical metamaterial by rational structure reconfiguration at the micro/nano level via scalable ball milling technology for efficient daytime radiative cooling. Specifically, fine-tuning the shearing kinetics in the mechanochemistry process, cellulosic optical metamaterial (COM) with approximate to 98% solar reflectivity and approximate to 0.97 infrared emissivity has been successfully achieved, which can break through the theoretical value of photonic crystals as well as the conventional synthetic optical materials. The COMSOL simulation reveals that the excellent optical properties of the cellulose metamaterial are explained by the "confined scattering" effect caused by the rearranged heterostructure at the micro/nano level. Outdoor tests demonstrat that the COM-based coating exhibits a daytime radiative cooling efficiency of 5.7 degrees C in hot Nanjing. Meanwhile, the COM can be produced into different scattering materials via spray coating, freeze casting, and solution casting technology. This study will facilitate the development of scalable and sustainable optical metamaterials for mitigating energy consumption. Novel visible "white" but infrared "black" cellulosic optical metamaterials with nanoconfined scattering are created by reconstructing the surface structure of cellulose at the micro/nano level via manipulating the mechanochemistry process, which shows record-high solar reflectance and infrared emissivity. This novel kind of cellulose-based metamaterial can be used as paint to show great application in the daytime radiative cooling fields. image