CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
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2025
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IF 13.2
Xiaodan Wu,Jing Liu,Siying Guo,Xin Zhao,Yunjie Yang,Yurong Pan,Fulin Cheng,Yi Chen,Yibo Wang,Zechang Wei,Chenyang Cai,Wenbo Chen
Energy conversion systems can be advanced by harvesting and transforming thermal energy, such as cooling or heating, into electrical power. Still, the traditionally designed thermoelectric devices still suffer from low output voltage, poor mechanical properties and cannot work in all seasons due to a lack of an effective thermal regulation approach. Herein, based on the heat rectification effect, we report dual-mode metawood bricks (DM) with a unique internal aligned semi-pores design and double-sided architecture achieved by a partial level (60 %) of densification scheme and surface coating modifications. In cooling mode, the upper side of the wood, which had a high solar reflectivity and infrared emissivity, promoted heat transfer from inner space to outer space with interface energy capture of the MXene layer. In heating mode, high solar absorption and low infrared emissivity of the MXene layer prevents heat loss. The resulting bricks enable all-weather thermal management by a large temperature gradient, with sub-ambient cooling of 4.7 °C during hot weather and above-ambient heating of 17.0 °C during cold weather. Outdoor practice confirms that the integrated single thermoelectric device generates a power density of 10.4 mW/cm 2 in heating mode and 3.9 mW/cm 2 in cooling mode, which is higher than previous reports. Moreover, these bricks demonstrate an impressive high mechanical strength of 36.0 MPa and water resistance capabilities, which are attractive features for sustainable, design-customizable, and practical thermo-electronic devices.
研究领域:
材料科学
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能源工程
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热管理技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
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2025
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IF 19
Liangyuan Qi,Wei Cai,Tianyang Cui,Junwei Li,Lei Song,Zhou Gui,Bin Fei,Jixin Zhu,Yuan Hu,Weiyi Xing
Radiative cooling coatings demonstrate broad applicability on equipment surfaces, spanning spacecraft to precision instruments, for sub-ambient cooling. However, unlike conventional equipment relies on solar reflection and infrared emission for cooling, the heat-generating equipment relies on coupled thermal conduction and radiative cooling, representing a distinct heat transfer paradigm. This study introduces an innovative fire-safe radiative cooling-enhanced anisotropic thermal rectification coating (TRC) by leveraging the thermal rectification effect. The rectification mechanism stems from engineered thermal conductivity gradients with temperature-dependent anisotropy, where asymmetric phonon transport in multilayer architectures enables unidirectional heat flux control. Through the rational coupling of radiative cooling emitters at the cold terminal with thermal diodes, the TRC achieves unidirectional heat transfer enhancement through conduction-radiation coupling, demonstrating a thermal rectification coefficient of 1.78 and 3.1–3.4 °C daytime temperature reduction below ambient. Crucially, under concurrent solar irradiation and simulated heat-generating equipment (50 °C), TRC attains 6.8 °C maximum cooling enhancement. Notably, the TRC integrates gas-phase and condensed-phase flame retardant mechanisms to effectively mitigate the risk of thermal runaway in heat-generating devices. This multifunctional integration advances radiative cooling technology toward practical implementation in thermal-critical infrastructure, including power electronics thermal management and smart building systems.
研究领域:
热工程
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材料科学
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传热学
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纳米技术
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消防安全工程
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应用物理学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
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2025
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IF 19
Wei Wei,Yuqing Tian,Zhuwang Shao,Bingwei Bao,Guoqing Chen,Dandan Chen,Chunmao Wu,Bo Wu,Jianhui Chen,Chengyi Hou,Hongzhi Wang
The dynamic interplay between environmental temperature fluctuations and human thermal comfort calls for intelligent textiles capable of adaptive heat regulation. Herein, a complementary, dynamic-responsive, and environment-adaptive metafabric (DREAM) is reported that integrates radiative cooling (RC) with phase-change-driven thermal buffering within a gradient porous architecture. This synergistic design enables closed-loop management of cooling energy through a harvest–storage–release mechanism, achieving effective thermal modulation under diurnal-nocturnal cycles. The high solar reflectivity (≈95.6%) and mid-infrared emissivity (≈95.4%) of DREAM ensure efficient radiative cooling, while embedded high-latent-heat microencapsulated phase-change materials (PCMs) actively respond to thermal loads. Moreover, the engineered gradient porosity imparts directional heat conduction and thermal asymmetry, suppressing external heat gain. Compared to conventional RC textiles, DREAM demonstrates a significantly enhanced cooling capacity (124.4 W m −2 ) and a daytime temperature drop of up to 19.6 °C, while reducing nighttime temperature fluctuations by 84%. Beyond its thermal performance, DREAM exhibits robust mechanical strength, excellent air and moisture permeability, and wash durability, making it promising for wearable and building-integrated thermal regulation. This work offers a material–structure–function co-design strategy for next-generation climate-adaptive textiles.
研究领域:
材料科学
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纺织工程
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热管理
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智能纺织品
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储能
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Materials Today Physics
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2024
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IF 10
Yunsong Pang,Junhong Li,Zhibin Wen,Ting Liang,Shan Gao,Min Yang,Dezhao Huang,Jianbin Xu,Tengfei Luo,Xiaoliang Zeng,Rong Sun
The controlling of heat flow direction stands as a prominent methodological approach within the domain of thermal management, and this can be accomplished through the utilization of thermal diodes. However, if the thermal diode lacks mechanical compliance, hindering its intimate contact with heat source/sink surfaces, the thermal rectification performance is limited. In this work, we propose a method to solve the mechanical compliance problem that is introducing phase change material (PCM) consisting of dual alkanes (hexadecane and paraffine wax) and polyurethane to fabricate the heterojunction thermal diode. The fabricated thermal diode exhibits an ultra-soft mechanical feature, with a low elastic modulus of 0.4 KPa and >300 % elongation until failure – the best values reported to date for thermal diodes. The measured thermal rectification factor is as high as 1.42 – in line with the theoretical model prediction. Molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the thermal rectification mechanism of the PCM-based thermal diode originates from the crystal-amorphous phase transition of the hexadecane terminal as the temperature bias flips. Therefore, the heat flow in the forward direction is greater than the flux in the reverse direction. A series of experiments and finite element analyses are employed to verify the feasibility of thermal diodes for applications in real contexts like the civil engineering.
研究领域:
热管理
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材料科学
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机械工程
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热物理学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）