Smart tinting on windows set for effectiveness and durability

The research, led by Prof Mike McGehee in the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, uses a reversible metal electrodeposition process that differs from current industry standards.

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"What we are doing is building an electrochemical cell. We have a transparent electrode and an electrode with metal ions. By switching the voltage, the thin plate metal blocks the light," he said in a statement. "It's not at all how other people are achieving the same effect."

A paper by the team in Joule explains how metal can be electroplated onto a transparent electrode to block light and then stripped to make the window transparent again by manipulating the voltage. It specifically explores how various electrolytes can be used with different supporting anions to achieve the desired results.

Despite their appeal, dynamic windows have yet to achieve extensive commercialisation because of ‘their inability to simultaneously achieve fast, colour-neutral tinting over a wide optical dynamic range at a low cost’.