Efficient and Scalable Radiative Cooling for Photovoltaics Using Solution-Processable and Solar-Transparent Mesoporous Nanoparticles

Abstract

Continuous heat generation in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), caused by solar radiation, poses a significant challenge to their lifespan. Existing active cooling methods require extra energy input and might not be effective at high temperatures. Most reported passive radiative cooling materials either lack solar transparency or require complex fabrication processes. Here, mesoporous silica nanoparticles are designed, synthesized, and assembled into multilayered stacks with a graded refractive index (GRI) by spray coating them on top of PSCs made from methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) over a large scale (15.6 x 15.6 cm2). This coating offers both high transparency in the visible wavelength and high emissivity in the mid-infrared region, leading to an average temperature reduction of 6.65 +/- 1.48 degrees C in GRI-coated MAPbI3 PSCs under outdoor conditions compared to non-coated references. After 50 d, the GRI-coated PSCs maintain 80.9 +/- 8.7% of their initial photoconversion efficiency, in contrast to 6.1 +/- 5.9% for the noncoated ones. The calculated cooling power of the GRI-coated PSCs is 28.9% higher than that of the reference cells. Graded refractive index (GRI) structures are prepared from the layer-by-layer spray coating of the mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles, showing high solar transparency and thermal emissivity. Under outdoor conditions, after 50 days, the GRI-coated photovoltaics show on average 6.65 +/- 1.48 degrees C lower than that of the non-coated references, maintaining 80.9 +/- 8.7% of initial photoconversion efficiency while the references drop to 6.1 +/- 5.9%. image