Towards room temperature thermochromic coatings with controllable nir ir modulation for solar heat management & smart windows applications

Abstract

Solar heat management & green air‑conditioning are among the major technologies that could mitigate heat islands phenomenon while minimizing significantly the CO 2 global foot‑print within the building & automotive sectors. Chromogenic materials in general, and thermochromic smart coatings especially are promising candidates that consent a noteworthy dynamic solar radiation Infrared (NIR‑IR) regulation and hence an efficient solar heat management especially with the expected increase of the global seasonal temperature. Within this contribution, two major challenging bottlenecks in vanadium oxide based smart coatings were addressed. It is validated for the first time that the NIR‑IR modulation of the optical transmission (∆T TRANS = T(T⟨TMIT) − T(T⟩TMIT ) of Vanadium oxide based smart coatings can be controlled & tuned. This upmost challenging bottle‑neck controllability/ tunability is confirmed via a genuine approach alongside to a simultaneous drastic reduction of the phase transition temperature T MIT from 68.8 °C to nearly room temperature.