Ultra-Tough Anisotropic Bionic-Metafabric with Core-Shell Architecture for Sustainable Radiative Cooling.

Abstract

The development of scalable high-quality radiative cooling materials can effectively address overheating issues without energy consumption. While some progress has been made, significant challenges remain in a narrow application range, low cooling power, and poor mechanical properties, which fail to meet requirements for sustainable use. Here, inspired by the special structure of white moth wings and spider silk, a flexible, strong, and tough high-efficiency radiation cooling metafabric (STRCM) is demonstrated with a unique fiber microstructure (including anisotropy and core-shell structure). The metafabric exhibits remarkable mechanical characteristics, boasting an effective tensile strength of 2.55 MPa, and exceptional toughness with an elongation at break of 726.94% and an impact energy absorption of 31 MJ m-3. More importantly, the metafabric demonstrates excellent radiative cooling with a temperature drop of ≈6.7 °C and an average cooling power of 79.0 W m-2 under a peak solar intensity of ≈978 W m-2 (tested in Beijing, China). During a long-term intermittent testing period, the cooling effect of the material shows no noticeable decline. The multi-level structural design of this work provides an unprecedented strategy for simultaneously enhancing mechanical properties and radiative cooling for long-term applications.