Aerogels may be used as a potential low-cost PDRC material scalable for mass production. Some aerogels can also be considered a more environmentally friendly alternative to other materials, with degradable potential and the absence of toxic chemicals. Aerogels can also be useful as a thermal insulation material to reduce solar absorption and parasitic heat gain to improve the cooling performance of PDRCs.
* Yue et al. (2022), superhydrophobic waste paper-based (cellulose) aerogel, solar reflectance 93%, thermal emittance 91%, reduced daytime temperatures up to 8.5 °C below ambient in outdoor test, in a building energy simulation the aerogel "showed that 43.4% of cooling energy on average could be saved compared to the building baseline consumption" in China if widely implemented.
* Liu et al. (2022), degradable and superhydrophobic stereo-complex poly (lactic acid) aerogel with low thermal conductivity, solar reflectance 89%, heat emittance 93%, reduced daytime temperatures 3.5ᵒC below ambient, "opens an environmentally sustainable pathway to radiative cooling applications."
* Li et al. (2022), low-cost silica-alumina nanofibrous aerogels (SAFAs) synthesized by electrospinning, solar reflectance 95%, heat emittance 93%, reduced daytime temperatures 5ᵒC below ambient, "the SAFAs exhibit high compression fatigue resistance, robust fire resistance and excellent thermal insulation" with "low cost and high performance," shows potential for further studies.