Wenqi Wang

A white infrared-transparent aerogel decouples solar reflection and thermal emission while suppressing parasitic heat gain, enabling deep subambient cooling and enhanced building-energy savings across climates.

Passive radiative cooling (PRC) technology enables efficient thermal management through high solar reflectance and thermal emission within the atmospheric infrared window. However, conventional radiative coolers predominantly exhibit white or silver appearances due to stringent solar reflectance requirements, thereby limiting their aesthetic appeal. Although colored radiative coolers incorporating conventional pigments have been reported, they invariably suffer from solar absorption that significantly compromises cooling performance. Recent advances have explored photoconversion materials to mitigate cooling power losses via photoluminescence, primarily employing semiconductor quantum dots, perovskites, and phosphorescent dyes. However, most of these materials present critical limitations including environmental toxicity, high cost, synthesis complexity, and poor photostability. Carbon dots (CDs) provide a viable alternative as a low‐cost, eco‐friendly photoluminescent material which can deliver tunable coloration through visible absorption while simultaneously recovering the cooling power. Herein, we demonstrate a CD‐based colored passive radiative cooler (CD‐CPRC) with a bilayer structure that consists of a highly reflective hierarchically porous PRC ceramic and a CD‐polymer composite, with two types of CDs enabling conversion of either ultraviolet or visible light, respectively. Our field tests demonstrate that both CD‐CPRCs attain lower temperatures than non‐emitting pigment‐based radiative coolers, with a maximum temperature reduction of 4.2°C during midday. These findings showcase the potential of the CD‐CPRC as an efficient, feasible, eco‐friendly, and scalable technology for advancing next‐generation thermal management skins in smart cities.

Global warming is intensifying coupled heat–water stress in agriculture, necessitating scalable strategies for cooling and moisture retention. Passive radiative cooling (PRC) presents a promising avenue, yet current PRC films predominantly rely on expensive non‐agricultural feedstocks and involve energy‐ or solvent‐intensive manufacturing processes, while limited end‐of‐life environmental compatibility hampers alignment with agricultural systems. Herein, we present a sustainable radiative cooling mulch (SRCM) derived from waste maize leaves, engineered to establish an “agricultural residue–material–soil” closed loop. Through spontaneous hydrogen‐bond‐mediated self‐assembly requiring no external energy, we engineered a hierarchically porous, self‐reinforced fibrous network that combines application‐grade mechanical robustness (tensile strength up to 17.8 MPa) with a high solar reflectance of 93.3% and a mid‐infrared emissivity of 92.6%. In outdoor tests, relative to bare soil, SRCM lowers soil temperature by up to 18°C and suppresses evaporative water loss by up to 85.8%, markedly improving early‐stage bok choy growth with 5.3‐fold higher germination and 220% greater biomass. Furthermore, SRCM demonstrates excellent recyclability via aqueous reprocessing and exhibits complete biodegradability and biosafety at the end of its life cycle. This work offers a scalable, closed‐loop strategy at the heat–water–food–energy nexus, advancing sustainable circular agriculture.

Ice accumulation poses a significant threat to aviation safety and energy infrastructure. Photothermal superhydrophobic surfaces offer a promising anti-/deicing strategy; however, their excessive heat absorption in summer accelerates material degradation and exacerbates urban heat island effects, highlighting the urgent need for dynamic thermal regulation. In this study, we present a self-regulated photothermal storage superhydrophobic film with a trilayer design, comprising a photothermal phase-change base layer, a freeze-resistant thermochromic hydrogel interlayer, and a transparent superhydrophobic top layer. This multifunctional design enables seasonal adaptability, achieving 92% solar absorptance for efficient anti-/deicing in winter and 62% solar modulation to mitigate overheating in summer. This dual mode prolongs freezing time by 10-fold at −20 °C and lowers surface temperature by up to 17 °C in hot weather, demonstrating substantial potential for global building energy-savings. Additionally, its ultraviolet-blocking capability and durable superhydrophobicity ensure long-term durability performance in harsh environments. This work not only addresses the critical overheating challenge in photothermal materials but also advances the development of next-generation anti-icing systems.