IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v377y2025ipas0306261924018191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Color Design for Daytime Radiative Cooling: Fundamentals and Approaches

Author

Listed:
  • Yu, Tao
  • Liu, Rumin
  • Yang, Zixiang
  • Yang, Shikuan
  • Ye, Zhizhen
  • Lu, Jianguo

Abstract

The escalating global energy crisis and the worsening global warming have intensified the heat threats posed by high temperatures. Traditional cooling methods like air conditioning are not only energy-intensive but also contribute to environmental degradation. In response, there is a pressing demand for novel, eco-friendly cooling technologies, particularly amid the growing global push for carbon neutrality. As a passive cooling method that does not require any extra power input, radiative cooling offers a promising solution, utilizing thermal radiation to cool the Earth by transferring heat directly to outer space. However, current radiative cooling materials generally have a monotonous white appearance due to their high reflectivity to solar radiation, which, considering their prospects for outdoor applications, has prompted the need for color design. Recent advancements have led to the development of colored passive radiative cooling (CPRC) materials, offering passive cooling without additional energy input, colorful aesthetic appearance, and facile preparation methods. In this review, the latest progress in CPRC materials are summarized, covering fundamental principles, various color design solutions, and potential applications. Besides, the coloration strategy including chemical, structural, and luminescent approaches for CPRC are comprehensively analyzed, providing insights into the future development and deployment of CPRC materials for outdoor energy efficient systems and thermal regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu, Tao & Liu, Rumin & Yang, Zixiang & Yang, Shikuan & Ye, Zhizhen & Lu, Jianguo, 2025. "Color Design for Daytime Radiative Cooling: Fundamentals and Approaches," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:377:y:2025:i:pa:s0306261924018191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261924018191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124436?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bilgen, S., 2014. "Structure and environmental impact of global energy consumption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 890-902.
    2. Zewei Shao & Aibin Huang & Cuicui Cao & Xiaowei Ji & Wei Hu & Hongjie Luo & John Bell & Ping Jin & Ronggui Yang & Xun Cao, 2024. "Tri-band electrochromic smart window for energy savings in buildings," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(6), pages 796-803, June.
    3. Wei Li & Yu Shi & Zhen Chen & Shanhui Fan, 2018. "Photonic thermal management of coloured objects," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Aaswath P. Raman & Marc Abou Anoma & Linxiao Zhu & Eden Rephaeli & Shanhui Fan, 2014. "Passive radiative cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight," Nature, Nature, vol. 515(7528), pages 540-544, November.
    5. Xueke Wu & Jinlei Li & Fei Xie & Xun-En Wu & Siming Zhao & Qinyuan Jiang & Shiliang Zhang & Baoshun Wang & Yunrui Li & Di Gao & Run Li & Fei Wang & Ya Huang & Yanlong Zhao & Yingying Zhang & Wei Li & , 2024. "A dual-selective thermal emitter with enhanced subambient radiative cooling performance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Zhuofei Jia & Yiming Sui & Long Qian & Xi Ren & Yunxiang Zhao & Rui Yao & Lumeng Wang & Dongliang Chao & Cheng Yang, 2024. "Electrochromic windows with fast response and wide dynamic range for visible-light modulation without traditional electrodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Patrick T. Brown & Ken Caldeira, 2017. "Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget," Nature, Nature, vol. 552(7683), pages 45-50, December.
    8. Fei Ji & Zhaohua Wu & Jianping Huang & Eric P. Chassignet, 2014. "Evolution of land surface air temperature trend," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 462-466, June.
    9. Zhao, Bin & Hu, Mingke & Ao, Xianze & Chen, Nuo & Pei, Gang, 2019. "Radiative cooling: A review of fundamentals, materials, applications, and prospects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 489-513.
    10. Bor-Kai Hsiung & Radwanul Hasan Siddique & Doekele G. Stavenga & Jürgen C. Otto & Michael C. Allen & Ying Liu & Yong-Feng Lu & Dimitri D. Deheyn & Matthew D. Shawkey & Todd A. Blackledge, 2017. "Rainbow peacock spiders inspire miniature super-iridescent optics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Jianing Song & Wenluan Zhang & Zhengnan Sun & Mengyao Pan & Feng Tian & Xiuhong Li & Ming Ye & Xu Deng, 2022. "Durable radiative cooling against environmental aging," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    12. Sai Liu & Yang Li & Ying Wang & Yuwei Du & Kin Man Yu & Hin-Lap Yip & Alex K. Y. Jen & Baoling Huang & Chi Yan Tso, 2024. "Mask-inspired moisture-transmitting and durable thermochromic perovskite smart windows," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xueke Wu & Jinlei Li & Fei Xie & Xun-En Wu & Siming Zhao & Qinyuan Jiang & Shiliang Zhang & Baoshun Wang & Yunrui Li & Di Gao & Run Li & Fei Wang & Ya Huang & Yanlong Zhao & Yingying Zhang & Wei Li & , 2024. "A dual-selective thermal emitter with enhanced subambient radiative cooling performance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Pospíšilík, Václav & Honus, Stanislav & Lukeš, Roman & Jadlovec, Marek & Štukavec, Ondřej, 2024. "Differences in heat losses between glazing of various emissivities related to night sky radiation: Experimental and numerical analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    3. Gong, Quan & Lu, Lin & Chen, Jianheng, 2024. "Progress in radiative cooling materials for urban skin: Achievements in scalability, durability, color modulation, and intelligent thermal regulation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PB).
    4. Marco Noro & Simone Mancin & Roger Riehl, 2021. "Energy and Economic Sustainability of a Trigeneration Solar System Using Radiative Cooling in Mediterranean Climate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    5. Xu, Nuo & Wang, Jiacheng & Cui, Yubo & Ren, Shenghao & Deng, Jiangbin & Gou, Qianzhi & Chen, Zhaoyu & Wang, Kaixin & Geng, Yang & Cui, Jiaxi & Li, Meng, 2024. "Butterfly wing-inspired microstructured film with high reflectivity for efficient passive radiative cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    6. Lianhu Xiong & Yun Wei & Chuanliang Chen & Xin Chen & Qiang Fu & Hua Deng, 2023. "Thin lamellar films with enhanced mechanical properties for durable radiative cooling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Wang, Cun-Hai & Chen, Hao & Jiang, Ze-Yi & Zhang, Xin-Xin & Wang, Fu-Qiang, 2023. "Modelling and performance evaluation of a novel passive thermoelectric system based on radiative cooling and solar heating for 24-hour power-generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    8. Gopalakrishna Gangisetty & Ron Zevenhoven, 2023. "A Review of Nanoparticle Material Coatings in Passive Radiative Cooling Systems Including Skylights," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-59, February.
    9. Jia, Linrui & Lu, Lin & Chen, Jianheng & Han, Jie, 2022. "A novel radiative sky cooling-assisted ground-coupled heat exchanger system to improve thermal and energy efficiency for buildings in hot and humid regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    10. Ziwei Fan & Taeseung Hwang & Sam Lin & Yixin Chen & Zi Jing Wong, 2024. "Directional thermal emission and display using pixelated non-imaging micro-optics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    11. Yan, Tian & Xu, Dawei & Meng, Jing & Xu, Xinhua & Yu, Zhongyi & Wu, Huijun, 2024. "A review of radiative sky cooling technology and its application in building systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    12. Han, Tian & Zhou, Zhihua & Du, Yahui & Wang, Wufan & Wang, Cheng & Yang, Xueqing & Liu, Junwei & Yang, Haibin & Cui, Hongzhi & Yan, Jinyue, 2024. "Advances in radiative sky cooling based on the promising electrospinning," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    13. Wang, Cun-Hai & Chen, Hao & Jiang, Ze-Yi & Zhang, Xin-Xin, 2023. "Design and experimental validation of an all-day passive thermoelectric system via radiative cooling and greenhouse effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    14. Miranda, Nicole D. & Renaldi, Renaldi & Khosla, Radhika & McCulloch, Malcolm D., 2021. "Bibliometric analysis and landscape of actors in passive cooling research," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Dongpyo Hong & Yong Joon Lee & Ok Sung Jeon & In-Sung Lee & Se Hun Lee & Jae Yeon Won & Young Pyo Jeon & Yunju La & Seonmyeong Kim & Gun-Sik Park & Young Joon Yoo & Sang Yoon Park, 2024. "Humidity-tolerant porous polymer coating for passive daytime radiative cooling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Pan, Aiqiang & Chen, Yi & Lin, Kaixin & Bai, Shengxi & Ho, Tsz Chung & Tso, Chi Yan, 2024. "Numerical investigations of novel hybrid solid desiccant cooling systems combined with passive radiative cooling panels," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    17. Lv, Song & Ji, Yishuang & Qian, Zuoqin & He, Wei & Hu, Zhongting & Liu, Minghou, 2021. "A novel strategy of enhancing sky radiative cooling by solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooler," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    18. Bijarniya, Jay Prakash & Sarkar, Jahar, 2020. "Climate change effect on the cooling performance and assessment of passive daytime photonic radiative cooler in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    19. Chi, Fang'ai & Liu, Yang & Yan, Jianxiong, 2021. "Integration of Radiative-based air temperature regulating system into residential building for energy saving," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    20. Zhang, Anxun & Yuan, Song & Du, Yike & Dou, Wenhao & Cai, Wenshan & Zhang, Fan & Zhu, Jiliang & Ye, Zhicheng, 2024. "A flat radiative cooling thermoelectric generator for high performance power generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:377:y:2025:i:pa:s0306261924018191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.