Photonic Inverse Opal‐Enabled Seamless Interface of Bilayer Structure for Color Regulation and Robust Passive Radiative Cooling

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Authors: Jia‐Bin Wei, Bo Tang, Xin‐jun Li, Long‐Xiang You, Xu‐Lin Yang, Yu‐Zhong Wang, Fei Song
Cited by: 8
References: 42

Abstract

Colorful passive daytime radiative cooling has emerged as an attractive zero-energy-cooling technology that integrates aesthetic appeal with thermal management. However, achieving concurrent high cooling efficiency and mechanical robustness remains challenging, constrained either by the narrow solar reflection bandwidth and limited spectral tunability of monolayer photonic structures, or by interfacial heterogeneities in multilayer architectures. Here, we demonstrate a size-exclusion-assisted selective infiltration strategy for fabricating structurally colored daytime radiative cooling (SCDRC) sheets. A polymer phase exhibiting negligible solar absorption and high infrared emissivity permeates preassembled colloidal crystal templates, forming an ordered inverse opal layer upon etching, whereas microscale boron nitride platelets selectively excluded from the template organize into a packed solar-reflective microstructure. The resulting SCDRC sheets display tunable colors through pore geometry control, achieving >96% solar reflectance, >94% mid-infrared emissivity, a sub-ambient temperature reduction of 7°C in outdoor environments, and an average cooling power reduction of 20.7% across diverse climatic zones in China. The photonic framework demonstrates exceptional stability under prolonged thermal and humidity exposure, guaranteeing persistent coloration and cooling performance. This seamless-interface bilayer fabrication strategy establishes a viable platform for developing durable colored cooling materials integrating aesthetic appeal with energy-saving functionality, showing significant potential for advanced architectural and industrial applications.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies Optical properties and cooling technologies in crystalline materials Thermal properties of materials

Publication details

Journal / source
Advanced Materials
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
38
Issue
12
Pages
e22922–e22922
Publication date
20 January 2026
Language
EN