A radiative cooling paper based on ceramic fiber for thermal management of human head

The intensification of global warming has resulted in extremely hot weather in many parts of the world, posing a severe challenge to the health and safety of outdoor workers. Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) textiles with no energy input requirements can effectively achieve temperature management. However, few wearable radiative cooling devices have been successfully prepared. This study demonstrates a radiative cooling paper (RCP) with tunable stiffness for the thermal management of human head by using SiO2 fibers and fumed SiO2 as emitters. The as-prepared RCP exhibits high sunlight reflectivity of 0.97, and high emissivity of 0.91 in the atmospheric window. The results demonstrate that the RCP hat can prevent hair from overheating by reducing the temperature by an average of 12.9 °C compared with a white cotton hat under peak daylight conditions. Besides, the RCP exhibits outstanding integrated properties of high mechanical properties, waterproofness, and air permeability. Therefore, it is more suitable than other textiles for the manufacture of radiative cooling hats, and offers a promising solution to solve the problem of head thermal management in outdoor conditions.