Can quantum dots help to mitigate urban overheating? An experimental and modelling study

Abstract Application of fluorescent materials has proven to be an effective method for urban overheating mitigation due to their unique ability to re-emit a portion of the absorbed solar irradiation through photoluminescence (PL) effect. Herein, we introduced the idea of using quantum dots (QDs) as tunable fluorescent materials with potentially higher cooling capacity than their bulk counterparts and proposed a novel algorithm to model their thermo-optic behaviour under the sunlight. Our proposed method represents a major step forward in the understanding of the heat-rejection mechanism through PL effect and optimization of QDs fluorescent properties for urban overheating mitigation. Since it’s complicated to distinguish surface temperature reduction caused by reflection from that of PL effect, our developed algorithm could be used as a reliable tool for precise estimation of the PL effect contribution to heat dissipation.