Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blend films were prepared using biaxial stretching. The effects of PMMA content and stretching ratio on the crystallinity and β phase fraction of PVDF in blend films were investigated. The distributions of crystallinity and β phase fraction on variable locations were also studied. The results of FTIR and XRD showed that β phase appeared in PVDF/PMMA blends after extrusion and casting procedures. Although β phase fraction decreased after preheating, there was still an increasing trend during following biaxial stretching. More importantly, the increase in PMMA content improved β phase fraction, and the highest β phase fraction of 93% was achieved at PMMA content of 30 wt% and stretching ratio of 2×2. Besides, the reduction in PMMA content and the increase in stretching ratio improved the crystallinity of PVDF. The mechanical properties of the stretched films were significantly improved by increasing the stretching ratio as well. The uniform stress distribution on different regions of biaxial stretching films contributed to the uniform distribution of β phase fraction and crystallinity of PVDF with the aid of simulation. This work confirmed that biaxial stretching can be a candidate method to prepare PVDF/PMMA blend films with uniform distributions of comparable β phase and crystallinity of PVDF.

Radiative cooling can make the selective emitter cool below ambient temperature without any external energy. Recent advances in photonic crystal and metamaterial technology made a high-efficiency selective emitter achievable by precisely controlling the emitter’s Infrared emission spectrum. However, the high cost of the photonic crystals and meta-materials limit their application. Herein, an efficient bilayer selective emitter is prepared based on the molecular vibrations of functional nanoparticles. By optimizing the volume fraction of the functional nanoparticles, the bilayer selective emitter can theoretically cool 36.7 °C and 25.5 °C below the ambient temperature in the nighttime and daytime, respectively. Such an efficient cooling performance is comparable with the published photonic crystal and metamaterial selective emitters. The rooftop measurements show that the bilayer selective emitter is effective in the ambient air even under direct sunlight. The relatively low cost and excellent cooling performance enable the bilayer selective emitter to have great potential for a practical purpose.