A Transparent Long‐Term Cooling Green Plant‐Like Window for Net‐Zero Energy Buildings
ABSTRACT We report a bioinspired, transparent green plant‐like window that integrates passive cooling, thermal insulation, and solar‐driven waste heat recovery to reduce building energy consumption. By mimicking leaf transpiration, the system uses a carbon quantum dot‐doped CPPB hydrogel to achieve high visible transmittance (~92%) while blocking UV and NIR radiation. A self‐powered water circulation layer repurposes solar heat for domestic water heating. Outdoor field tests and 168‐h solar simulator exposure confirm long‐term thermal stability and cooling up to 21.9°C. Simulations across 30 global cities show annual cooling energy savings up to 569.1 MJ/m 2 . This scalable, multifunctional window offers a sustainable path toward net‐zero energy buildings.
Authors
- Guoqi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8023-5170)
- QianWang Ye
- Hanqing Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5383-8702)
- Zhile Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2190-4581)
- Ruiqian Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0498-0363)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7800-3189)
- Fei Han
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (CN)
- Robotics Research (United States) (US)
- Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (CN)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Carbon Neutralization
- Published
- 2026-07-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/cnl2.70190
- Primary Topic
- Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- National Key Research and Development Program of China