High-Performance Radiative Cooling Sunscreen

Radiative cooling is a zero-energy-consumption cooling technology that shows great potential for outdoor human thermal management. To keep human skin comfortable in hot days, we herein develop a radiative cooling (RC) sunscreen that exhibits a low ultraviolet (UV) transmissivity (4.86%), a high solar reflectivity (90.19%), and a high mid-infrared emissivity (92.09%) to effectively provide both UV protection and skin cooling. As a result, the RC sunscreen exhibits a high cooling performance for decreasing the human skin temperature by 2.3-6.1 °C more than commercial sunscreens and 4.2-6.0 °C more than bare skin in a variety of outdoor scenarios in summer (e.g., low-humidity sunny days, high-humidity sunny days, and high-humidity cloudy days). In addition, the RC sunscreen also shows a good UV stability (12 h, 125 W), a high water resistance (106°), a long working life (30 days), and a good biocompatibility, thereby exhibiting promising commercial potentials in the sunscreen market.