Low‐Density and Flexible Silicone with Tunable Transparency for Thermal Insulation and Passive Cooling

ABSTRACT Optimizing the performance of windows is central to reducing energy consumption. However, existing passive radiative cooling technologies primarily focus on reflecting solar radiation, often at the expense of visible light transmittance, which hinders their practical application. Herein, we report a low‐density, flexible silicone with tunable transparency fabricated through a facile sol‐gel transition and atmospheric pressure drying process. Utilizing polyethylene glycol‐isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane as a functional crosslinker, methyltrimethoxysilane and dimethyldimethoxysilane as copolymerized monomers, we achieved precise control over the material's microstructure and optical properties by tuning its content. The resulting transparent silicone samples exhibit outstanding overall performance: an average visible light transmittance as high as 92.97%, surpassing that of commercial ultra‐clear glass, and an infrared emissivity of 94.33% within the atmospheric window. Additionally, the silicone demonstrates a low density (0.343–0.857 g/cm 3 ), low thermal conductivity (0.073–0.214 W/(m·K)), and machinability with a bending toughness up to 4.89 × 10 5 J/m 3 . Benefiting from the silicone's selective spectral transmittance and high infrared emissivity, a transparent silicone film‐coated substrate achieved a temperature drop up to 11.6°C compared to an uncoated substrate. This work integrates high transparency and passive cooling into a single material, providing a strategy for the development of transparent energy‐saving materials.

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Publication Details

Journal
Small
Published
2026-05-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.73980
Primary Topic
Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Low‐Density and Flexible Silicone with Tunable Transparency for Thermal Insulation and Passive Cooling

Y Zhang, Xicheng Zhang, ZhengMing Sun, Yi-Xiang Wang et al.
Small
Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
article

Low‐Density and Flexible Silicone with Tunable Transparency for Thermal Insulation and Passive Cooling

Y Zhang, Xicheng Zhang, ZhengMing Sun, Yi-Xiang Wang, Peng Zeng, Peigen Zhang, Huan Sun, Ling Liu, Yanan Chen, Miaoping Li
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Optimizing the performance of windows is central to reducing energy consumption. However, existing passive radiative cooling technologies primarily focus on reflecting solar radiation, often at the expense of visible light transmittance, which hinders their practical application. Herein, we report a low‐density, flexible silicone with tunable transparency fabricated through a facile sol‐gel transition and atmospheric pressure drying process. Utilizing polyethylene glycol‐isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane as a functional crosslinker, methyltrimethoxysilane and dimethyldimethoxysilane as copolymerized monomers, we achieved precise control over the material's microstructure and optical properties by tuning its content. The resulting transparent silicone samples exhibit outstanding overall performance: an average visible light transmittance as high as 92.97%, surpassing that of commercial ultra‐clear glass, and an infrared emissivity of 94.33% within the atmospheric window. Additionally, the silicone demonstrates a low density (0.343–0.857 g/cm 3 ), low thermal conductivity (0.073–0.214 W/(m·K)), and machinability with a bending toughness up to 4.89 × 10 5 J/m 3 . Benefiting from the silicone's selective spectral transmittance and high infrared emissivity, a transparent silicone film‐coated substrate achieved a temperature drop up to 11.6°C compared to an uncoated substrate. This work integrates high transparency and passive cooling into a single material, providing a strategy for the development of transparent energy‐saving materials.

Small
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (CN), Southeast University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Suzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies
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