VO₂/Si-Al gel nanocomposite thermochromic smart foils: largely enhanced luminous transmittance and solar modulation

C Liu; X Cao; A Kamyshny; J Y Law; S Magdassi; Y Long

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2013.11.028

VO₂/Si-Al gel nanocomposite thermochromic smart foils: largely enhanced luminous transmittance and solar modulation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2014 Aug 1:427:49-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.11.028. Epub 2013 Nov 20.

Authors

C Liu¹, X Cao¹, A Kamyshny², J Y Law³, S Magdassi², Y Long⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
² Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore; Facility for Analysis, Characterization, Testing and Simulation, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore. Electronic address: longyi@ntu.edu.sg.

PMID: 24360313
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2013.11.028

Abstract

VO2 nanoparticles with a dimension of approximately 20 nm were obtained by simple mechanical bead-milling method, which were well dispersed in transparent silica-alumina (Si-Al) gel matrix to form nanocomposites. The VO2/Si-Al gel thermochromic nanocomposite foils were fabricated with various VO2 solid contents and foil thickness. With 10% VO2 loading and 3 μm foil thickness, high luminous transmittance (T(lum(20°C))=63.7% and T(lum(90°C))=54.4%), and large solar modulation ability (ΔTsol=12%) can be obtained which surpasses the best reported results (nanoporous films:T(lum(20°C))=43.3%, T(lum(90°C))=39.9% and ΔTsol=14.1%). This current approach provided a simple and scalable preparation method with the best combined thermochromic performance.

Keywords: Mechanical bead milling; Nanocomposite; Nanoparticle; Nanothermochromic; Smart window; Sol–gel; Vanadium dioxide.