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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Interdisciplinary Physics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2025.1565691
This article is part of the Research Topic Nonlinear Vibration and Instability in Nano/Micro Devices: Principles and Control Strategies View all 10 articles
Modeling of cellulose acetate porous membrane preparation conditions and pore structure on solar radiation reflectance
Provisionally accepted- Tiangong University, Tianjin, China
Polymer porous membranes demonstrate considerable potential for application in the domain of radiative cooling, because of their exceptional solar reflection capabilities. However, current preparation methodologies for these membranes face challenges in achieving precise control over their microstructure, and the intrinsic correlation between porosity and reflective properties remains unclear, hindering the predictability and controllability of material properties. The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship between the preparation conditions and the microstructural characteristics of the samples with respect to their reflective properties through modeling, and to reveal the intrinsic mechanism in conjunction with experimental data.Porous cellulose acetate membranes were prepared by template-assisted evaporation-induced phase separation (EIPS) technique and the effects of evaporation temperature, humidity, and solid content on the pore structure and reflective properties of the products were thoroughly investigated. Through analysis, it was determined that there is a substantial linear correlation between the pore area percentage of the membrane and its reflective characteristics. A quantitative model was constructed to link the preparation conditions with the microstructure of the porous membrane, based on the study of the phase separation phenomenon in the evaporation process. Using the experimental data as reference, a genetic algorithm was used to determine the model parameters, resulting in a predictive model with a high degree of precision of adjustment, as evidenced by a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.904. The model demonstrated that temperature and humidity influenced the Percentage of pore area ratio by modulating solvent (DMF) evaporation kinetics, while solid content regulated membrane microstructure by adjusting polymer precipitation kinetics. This study provides a theoretical foundation for the structural design of radiative cooling materials and is expected to promote their development in practical applications.
Keywords: radiative cooling, Polymer porous membranes, reflectance, Evaporation, precipitation, Prediction model
Received: 23 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Wang, Li and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoyin Wang, Tiangong University, Tianjin, China
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