Reconfigurable and Renewable Nano-Micro-Structured Plastics for Radiative Cooling

Passive radiative technology enables sustainable cooling by synchronously emitting heat and reflecting solar light without any energy consumption. However, the consumption of non-recyclable and non-renewable radiative materials in large quantities may eventually cause resource waste and environmental issues. Herein, reconfigurable and renewable nano-micro-structured plastics for future eco-friendly and large-scale radiative cooling applications are developed. The plastics are facilely prepared from a locally confined polymerization method, which not only enables the customization of nano/micro-structures for thermal emission and sunlight reflection but also provides physically cross-linked networks for damage repairing, shape reconfiguration, and recyclable usage. Compared with traditional plastics applied on electronic devices, the nano-micro-structured plastic achieves much higher cooling efficiency with a temperature drop of 8.6 degrees C on electronic circuits and 7.5 degrees C cooling improvements under sunlight. With the excellent cooling performance and the recycling potential, the nano-micro-structured plastics open an environmentally sustainable pathway to address the thermal issues encountered by electronic devices and challenges of global warming.