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Buildings account for about 90% of Hong Kong's electricity consumption and over 60% of carbon emissions. Energy conservation in buildings is crucial for achieving climate mitigation goals. Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) researchers have developed an environmentally friendly solar-driven adaptive radiative cooling (SARC) coating for building roofs and walls.

This coating can reduce a building's surface temperature by up to 25°C and lower indoor temperatures by 2 to 3°C, all without consuming any energy. The non-toxic, metal-free and durable coating can also be produced on a large scale, promoting an eco-friendly and energy-saving method to mitigate urban heat island effects and support the achievement of carbon neutrality.

Coating a building in a reflective material enables the self-regulation of its thermal environment to minimize indoor temperatures. However, traditional passive radiative cooling materials are unable to automatically adjust cooling capacity in response to environmental changes, which limits their applications.

To address this challenge, a research team led by Prof. Lu Lin Vivien, Professor of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering at PolyU, along with key team member Dr. Quan Gong, Postdoctoral Fellow of the same department, has invented a carbon dots (CDs)-driven SARC coating that can adjust cooling capacity based on solar irradiance.

The work is published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

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