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Materials science

Composite for smarter windows

Nature volume 500, pages 278–279 (2013)Cite this article

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Glass has been prepared that selectively absorbs visible and near-infrared light when an electrochemical voltage is applied. This opens the way to 'smart' windows that block heat on demand, with or without optical transparency. See Letter p.323

Residential and commercial buildings account for about 40% of energy use and about 30% of energy-related carbon emissions in the United States1. To decrease this energy demand, materials are needed that help to regulate the heating and lighting requirements of buildings by responding to environmental changes. In particular, electrochromic window materials, which change colour and/or transparency when subjected to an electric field, could significantly reduce energy consumption in buildings2. On page 323 of this issue, Llordés et al.3 report a great advance in the development of such materials. They have made a composite in which nanometre-scale crystals of indium tin oxide are embedded in a niobium oxide glass, with high control of nanocrystal loading and dispersion. The electrochromic performance of the composite is much better than expected from a simple sum of the optical absorption of its two separate components, because of both the nanostructure of the material and synergistic interactions that occur at the interface between the components.

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Figure 1: Electrochromic window design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brian A. Korgel is in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology, Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.,

    Brian A. Korgel

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  1. Brian A. Korgel
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Correspondence to Brian A. Korgel.

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Korgel, B. Composite for smarter windows. Nature 500, 278–279 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500278a

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