FRACTAL | Sustainable Radiative Cooling Coatings for Energy-Efficient Buildings

The Project

Cooling demand is rapidly increasing due to rising global temperatures, with nearly 20% of building electricity consumption dedicated to refrigeration. Passive radiative cooling offers a promising alternative to reduce this demand, yet current high-performance solutions rely on transition metals with significant environmental impact.

The FRACTAL project aims to design flexible, transition-metal-free radiative cooling coatings capable of maintaining surfaces at ambient or sub-ambient temperatures under direct sunlight. The goal is to replace environmentally intensive materials with recycled and/or recyclable alternatives while matching or exceeding state-of-the-art optical and thermal performance.

The Research

This PhD will combine advanced materials engineering, thermal modeling, and experimental validation to:

• Develop predictive metrology tools to accurately quantify radiative cooling performance.

• Design coatings with solar reflectance above 90% and high mid-infrared emissivity.

• Validate performance under controlled and realistic outdoor conditions.