Temperature Regulation in Colored Infrared-Transparent Polyethylene Textiles

Effective temperature regulation on wearables not only can improve human health and comfort but also hold great promise for energy savings. Recent reports of infrared-transparent polyethylene textiles showed passive cooling effect by allowing the thermal radiation from the human body to pass through, but they lacked the tunability in visible color. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time a strategy utilizing unique inorganic pigment nanoparticles to achieve coloration of infrared-transparent polyethylene textiles for radiative cooling. With the demonstrated scalable fabrication processes and good stability against washing, this work will enable us to move one step closer to practical application of energy-efficient and cost-effective radiative cooling textiles for personal thermal management. Coloration of infrared-transparent polyethylene textiles is demonstrated to address the major challenge toward wide adoption of radiative cooling technology for personal thermal management. Utilizing inorganic pigment nanoparticles, such as Prussian blue, iron oxide, and silicon, infrared-transparent polyethylene fabrics of various colors are developed via scalable fabrication processes.