Page 122 - Glass-Technology International no. 5-2018

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Chemists could make

‘smart glass’ smarter

by manipulating it

at the nanoscale

lowly” is the op- exercise for graduate stu- “Smart glass,” an energy-efficiency
erative word; typi- dent and first author R.
“Scal smart glass Colby Evans, whose idea – product found in windows of newer
takes several minutes to and passion for the chem-
reach its darkened state, istry of color-changing
and many cycles between materials – turned into an cars, buildings and airplanes, slowly
light and dark tend to de- experiment involving two
grade the tinting quality types of microscopy and changes between transparent and
over time. Colorado State enlisting several collabo-
University chemists have rators. Evans, who com- tinted at the flip of a switch.
devised a potentially ma- pleted a summer internship
jor improvement to both funded by the CSU Energy
the speed and durability of Institute, is advised by
smart glass by providing Justin Sambur, assistant
a better understanding of professor in the Depart-
how the glass works at the ment of Chemistry. Evans said. Typical tung- tungsten-oxide nanoparti-
nanoscale. The smart glass that Evans sten-oxide smart glass cles, which are 100 times
They offer an alterna- and colleagues studied is panels take 7-12 minutes smaller than the width of a
tive nanoscale design “electrochromic,” which to transition between clear human hair. Their experi-
for smart glass in new re- works by using a voltage and tinted. ments revealed that single
search published on 3 to drive lithium ions into nanoparticles, by them-
June in Proceedings of the and out of thin, clear films NANOPARTICLES selves, tint four times fast-
National Academy of of tungsten oxide. “You TINT FASTER er than films of the same
Sciences. The project can think of it as a bat- The researchers specifical- nanoparticles. That’s be-
started as a grant-writing tery you can see through,” ly studied electrochromic cause interfaces between

120 Glass-Technology International 5/2019