Passive radiative cooling offers a sustainable solution to reduce carbon emissions in space cooling by simultaneously reflecting sunlight and emitting thermal radiation. However, the super-white property of conventional passive radiative cooling materials poses challenges for large-scale urban applications by conflicting with aesthetic requirements and neglecting impacts on urban microclimate and pedestrian thermal and visual comfort. Here inspired by the biological photoadaptation of coral, we present photoluminescence-based aesthetic composites as innovative urban skins that harness the enhanced light conversion of rare-earth-doped phosphors while decoupling from light-scattering-based whiteness, providing cool colours with improved urban compatibility. These composites demonstrate effective spectral reflectance of over 100% and peak reflectance up to 141% in their emission regions, despite a moderate overall solar reflectance (90.2–93.2%). With vivid yet angle-insensitive green, yellow and red appearances, the composites achieve subambient temperature reductions of 2.2–3.7?°C compared with ambient air and 6.1–7.9?°C relative to their non-photoluminescent counterparts. Moreover, their moderate whiteness alleviates excessive thermal and visual stress induced by trapping of sunlight in urban environments. Featuring excellent durability, compatibility and stability, these composites offer a scalable solution for energy-efficient and aesthetically pleasing radiative cooling in architecture, textiles and beyond, advancing passive radiative cooling technologies towards diverse real-world implementations.
Photoluminescent Radiative Cooling for Aesthetic and Urban Comfort
October 26th, 2025
October 26th, 2025
Via Nature, a new article examining the potential of passive radiative cooling to reduce carbon emissions in space cooling by simultaneously reflecting sunlight and emitting thermal radiation:
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2025 at 5:15 am and is filed under Extreme Heat, Green Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
ABOUT
'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.
'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.
It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.