Robust Janus fibrous membrane switchable infrared radiation properties for potential building thermal management application

摘要： Buildings heating and cooling consumes a large part of global energy, contributing to aggravating the global warming and energy crisis. It is strongly desired but still lacking in realizing heating and cooling functions within the same material without intensive energy input. Herein, a Janus thermal management membrane with trilayer structure has been prepared by using the ZnO nanorods array-coated cellulose (ZnO-NRs@cellulose), ultralong MnO2 nanowires (UL-MnO2-NWs) and silver nanowires (Ag-NWs) as building blocks. The ZnO-NRs@cellulose fiber layer with rough surface was fabricated by a hydrothermal progress based on the controlled growth of ZnO nanorods on cellulose surfaces. Subsequently, the hydrothermally synthesized UL-MnO2-NWs and Ag-NWs were filtered onto the ZnO-NRs@cellulose layer in turn, forming laminated Janus membrane. The Janus membrane exhibited asymmetric radiation properties on each side: the ZnO-NRs@cellulose side of the Janus membrane shows high solar radiation reflectivity and high infrared emissivity to minimize heat input from sun and enhance the heat dissipation in hot environment, while Ag-NWs side of that exhibits relatively high solar radiation absorption rate and low infrared emissivity for enhancing heat input from sun and reducing the heat radiation loss in cold environment. The introduction of UL-MnO2-NWs and Ag-NWs into the laminated Janus membrane endows the membrane with high tensile stress of 61.4 MPa. Moreover, the strong compatible entanglement among three layers of the Janus membrane causes the satisfactory interface stability. Due to the special asymmetric radiation performance, excellent interfacial compatibility, and high mechanical stability, such Janus membrane might be potential useful in building energy saving, personal thermal management and other facilities.