Radiative Cooling Tuned to the Spectral and Directional Infra-red Properties of the Atmosphere

Funding: 2009: $90,000
2010: $90,000
2011: $90,000

Project Member(s): Smith, G.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)

Start year: 2009

Summary: Coated surfaces and doped polymers capable of efficient night cooling at temperatures well below ambient will be produced starting with theoretical models of phonon based resonant absorption in nanoparticles. An admix of SiC and SiO will be designed to strongly emit heat only across the limited band where the atmosphere is highly transparent to thermal radiation. Other radiation will be reflected or transmitted to reduce heat gain from the atmosphere once surfaces drop below ambient. Since transparency of the sky to heat drops at lower angles, additional performance will be sought when low angle incoming radiation is blocked using solar concentrator like configurations. A goal with these is low energy hybrid cooling to ice temperatures.

Keywords: radiative cooling, atmospheric transmittance, nanoparticles, surface plasmons, air conditioning refrigeration, energy efficiency,

FOR Codes: Paints, Interdisciplinary Engineering, Optical Physics, Nanotechnology, Management of Gaseous Waste from Energy Activities (excl. Greenhouse Gases), Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering, Atomic, molecular and optical physics

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.