Abstract
One of the critical components of energy savings in buildings is thermal insulation, especially for windows in cold climates. The conventional approach mainly relies on a double-pane design. In this study, a new concept of “Green Window” has been designed for single-pane applications that lower the U-factor. The “Green Window” is structurally and simply composed of a thin film window coating of chlorophyll that exhibits pronounced photothermal effect, while remaining highly transparent. We demonstrate a new concept in “thermal insulation” via optical means instead of solely through thermal insulators or spectral selectivity. This concept lifts the dependence on insulating materials making single-pane window highly possible.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the financial support from the National Science Foundation Grants CMMI-1635089 and EEC-1343568. We thank Dr. Andrew Steckel for the use of the Perkin-Elmer spectrophotometer.
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The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.52
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Zhao, Y., Dunn, A.W. & Shi, D. Effective reduction of building heat loss without insulation materials via the photothermal effect of a chlorophyll thin film coated “Green Window”. MRS Communications 9, 675–681 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.52