7/2/2026 Taylor Parks
Written by Taylor Parks
Assistant professor Lili Cai recently won an award from the Illinois Proof-of-Concept (IPOC) program, which supports projects that bridge the gap between university innovations and the marketplace.
The project, “De-Risking Radiative Cooling Coatings for Commercial Cool Roof Market Entry,” aims to advance a high-performance radiative cooling coating toward real-world deployment.
“As global temperatures continue to rise, cooling has become one of the fastest-growing sources of energy consumption worldwide,” Cai said. “Building rooftops experience intense solar heating and represent a major opportunity for reducing building energy use.”
While conventional “cool roof” coatings reflect a portion of incoming sunlight, most cannot cool below ambient temperature and therefore provide limited relief during extreme heat. Earlier this year, Cai and members from her research group published findings from their recently developed high-performance radiative cooling that can reflect 97% of incoming sunlight while emitting infrared heat efficiently.
“Building on this breakthrough, we are now working to translate the laboratory technology into a commercially viable cool roof coating,” Cai said. “By bridging the gap between fundamental materials research and commercial deployment, this project aims to enable next-generation cool roof technologies that can reduce cooling energy consumption, lower electricity demand during heat waves, and improve the resilience of buildings in a warm climate.”
Over a ten-month span, Cai’s overall goals are to optimize formulation and thickness of the coating for an application-aligned prototype, validate durability and performance under industry-relevant standards, and conduct customer discovery and market analysis to better understand commercial requirements.
“The effort focuses on adapting the coating formulation, thickness, durability, and application methods to meet industry standards and real-world roofing requirements,” she said. “The project will also include engagement with roof coating manufacturers and contractors to better understand market needs and accelerate adoption.”
Cai will collaborate with Dr. Gerald Wilson, Director of Entrepreneurship at EnterpriseWorks. Wilson brings extensive experience in technology commercialization, coating product development, and manufacturing scale-up
“As researchers, we often develop technologies that show great promise in the lab, but translating them into products that people actually use is a much bigger challenge,” Cai said. “What excites me most about this project is the opportunity to take radiative cooling beyond laboratory demonstrations and move it toward real-world deployment, helping buildings stay cooler and more energy efficient.”