Zhengui Zhou

Radiative cooling (RC) is a carbon-neutral cooling technology that utilizes thermal radiation to dissipate heat from the Earth's surface to the cold outer space. Research in the field of RC has garnered increasing interest from both academia and industry due to its potential to drive sustainable economic and environmental benefits to human society by reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from conventional cooling systems. Materials innovation is the key to fully exploit the potential of RC. This review aims to elucidate the materials development with a focus on the design strategy including their intrinsic properties, structural formations, and performance improvement. The main types of RC materials, i.e., static-homogeneous, static-composite, dynamic, and multifunctional materials, are systematically overviewed. Future trends, possible challenges, and potential solutions are presented with perspectives in the concluding part, aiming to provide a roadmap for the future development of advanced RC materials.

Solar and thermal management of transparent windows is important for the energy efficiency of human-made structures. Functional layers that partially block solar radiation would also be heated by sunlight, thus accelerating the interior heat exchange and increasing daytime cooling energy consumption. Here, we propose a strategy to improve energy efficiency through window cooling using a transparent double-layer coating, which comprises a near-infrared reflective underlayer and a high mid-infrared emissive top layer. The addition of a top emitter can decrease the temperature of the near-infrared reflective window up to ∼7°C in outdoor tests, and can provide extra cooling energy savings ranging from 20 to 49 MJ ⋅ m−2 ⋅ year−1 for a typical building located in 11 cities worldwide. This accounts for ∼3%–∼8% of their total annual cooling energy consumption and indicates the significant impact of window cooling on interior energy efficiency.

Abstract The rational use and conversion of energy are the primary means for achieving the goal of carbon neutrality. MXenes can be used for photothermal conversion, but their opaque appearance limits wider applications. Herein, we successfully develop visible-light transparent and UV-absorbing polymer composite film by solution blending the MXene with polyethylene and then vacuum pressing. The resulting film could be quickly heated to 65 °C under 400 mW cm −2 light irradiation and maintained over 85% visible-light transmittance as well as low haze (<12%). The findings of the indoor heat insulation test demonstrate that the temperature of the glass house model covered by this film was 6-7 °C lower than that of the uncovered model, revealing the potential of transparent film in energy-saving applications. In order to mimic the energy-saving condition of the building in various climates, a typical building model with this film as the outer layer of the window was created using the EnergyPlus building energy consumption software. According to predictions, they could reduce yearly refrigeration energy used by 31-61 MJ m −2 , and 3%-12% of the total energy used for refrigeration in such structures. This work imply that the film has wide potential for use as transparent devices in energy-related applications.

Now, numerous exciting findings have been yielded in the field of energy metabolism within glioma cells. In addition to aerobic glycolysis, multiple catabolic pathways are employed for energy production. However, the prognostic significance of energy metabolism in glioma remains obscure. Here, we explored the relationship between energy metabolism gene profile and outcome of diffuse glioma patients using The Cancer Genome Altas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Altas (CGGA) datasets. Based on the gene expression profile, consensus clustering identified two robust clusters of glioma patients with distinguished prognostic and molecular features. With the Cox proportional hazards model with elastic net penalty, an energy metabolism-related signature was built to evaluate patients’ prognosis. Kaplan-Meier analysis found that the acquired signature could differentiate the outcome of low and high-risk groups of patients in both cohorts. Moreover, the signature, significantly associated with the clinical and molecular features, could serve as an independent prognostic factor for glioma patients. Gene Ontology (GO) and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) showed that gene sets correlated with high-risk group were involved in immune and inflammatory response, with the low-risk group were mainly related to glutamate receptor signaling pathway. Our results provided new insight into energy metabolism role in diffuse glioma.