Atmospheric Water-Activated Metatextiles for Autonomous Passive Cooling in Humid Climates

Abstract

Passive radiative cooling holds transformative potential for achieving energy-free thermal management, yet its effectiveness in hot and humid climates has remained severely limited by humidity-induced performance degradation, restricting cooling powers to only 10–20 W m–2. Here, we report a metal–organic-framework-engineered metatextile (MEMT) that overcomes this longstanding challenge through the monolithic integration of radiative and evaporative cooling. The MEMT achieves high daytime cooling powers of 153 and 170 W m–2 under 70% and 20% relative humidity, respectively, an order-of-magnitude improvement over conventional radiative cooling technologies in humid climates. This performance is enabled by the synergistic combination of high solar reflectance (94.9%), strong mid-infrared emissivity (96.6%), and autonomous atmospheric moisture harvesting with a water uptake capacity of 153.3 mg g–1. Critically, the textile harvests all required moisture autonomously from ambient air, eliminating any dependence on external water input and enabling fully self-sustained operation. Its woven architecture ensures mechanical durability, breathability, and manufacturing scalability across wearable, architectural, and industrial applications. This approach enables autonomous passive cooling under challenging climatic conditions and may contribute to reducing global cooling energy consumption and associated carbon emissions.