Hybrid Chemical Vapour Deposition: Gold and Vanadium Dioxide Nano-composites for Smart Windows

Thermochromic Thin Films: Synthesis, Properties and Energy Consumption Modelling

Thermochromic materials such as vanadium dioxide have been postulated for use in “SMART” windows for a number of years. Such windows work by exploiting a structural phase change from an infra-red transmissive state to a infra-red reflective state. Significant challenges still remain before such materials will be able to find wide spread use. In this mini review we discuss the nature of this thermochromic transition with reference to the latest research work in the field. We pay particular attention to challenges such as film colouration, transition temperature, and transition hysteresis. We describe the most up to date strategies for addressing these challenges, considering advanced synthes…

Energy modelling studies of enhanced glazing.

The research on new “energy materials” is a very interesting field of study in the direction of energy saving control in the building construction sector. Lots of studies have been carrying on to develop new enhanced glazing, new synthesis and analysing procedures but simulating their real behaviour is often very difficult and expensive. The easiest way to test the energy performance of new enhanced glazing, in this work doped vanadium (IV) dioxide thermochromic glazing, is to simulate the way they would respond if they were installed in a building. The software used to perform such simulations is Energy Plus™ which is an energy analysis and thermal load simulation program. The aim of this …