Jason Ford

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Materials

Coating helps windows maximise energy savings

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Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have designed a new material that can be embedded into window glass in order to dynamically modify sunlight as it passes through it.

The material is a thin coating of nanocrystals which, unlike existing technologies, provides selective control over visible light and near-infrared (NIR) light, so windows can maximise energy savings and occupant comfort in a wide range of climates.

‘In the US, we spend about a quarter of our total energy on lighting, heating and cooling our buildings,’ said Delia Milliron, a chemist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry who led this research. ‘When used as a window coating, our new material can have a major impact on building energy efficiency.’

Milliron is corresponding author on a paper describing the results the journal Nature. The paper is titled, ‘Tunable near-infrared and visible light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites,’ co-authored by Anna Llordés, Guillermo Garcia, and Jaume Gazquez.

According to Berkeley Lab, Milliron’s research group has worked previously on smart-window technology that blocks NIR without blocking visible light. The technology hinges on an electrochromic effect, where a small jolt of electricity switches the material between NIR-transmitting and NIR-blocking states.

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