Radiative cooling has been a hotspot for scientific research recently. As a passive cooling method， it uses outer space as heat sink， and has the advantage of low or even zero energy consumption. It has high potential in many applications such as building air conditioning， solar cell cooling， comfortable clothing， etc. This paper briefly reviews the development history and principles of radiative cooling， systematically introduces the structures and materials of radiative cooling， summarizes the design， preparation and characterization methods of radiative cooling materials， and also summarizes relevant application fields. The future of radiative cooling materials and technology is proposed at the end of this paper.