Radiative cooling of commercial silicon solar cells using a pyramid-textured PDMS film

Radiative cooling is an electricity-free method for solar cells to dissipate waste heat, which has drawn much attention in recent years. In this paper, a periodic pyramid-textured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film is proposed for radiative cooling of encapsulated commercial silicon solar cells. Spectral tests show that the proposed pyramid-textured PDMS film emits like a blackbody and simultaneously has an average transmittance of >0.9 in the silicon absorption spectrum from 0.3 µm to 1.1 µm. Outdoor cooling tests demonstrate that the encapsulated commercial silicon solar cells with the proposed textured PDMS film can be cooled by over 2 °C. Due to its good optical and flexible properties, the textured PDMS film has great potential for applications in the photovoltaic industry.