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Energy-saving devices

A smart way to wrap a building

Nature Sustainability (2023)Cite this article

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Regulating the temperature inside buildings takes a huge amount of energy, but this cost can be reduced with a smart, durable building envelope that can adapt to different temperatures for heat loss control.

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) was the first radiative cooling material used to enable buildings to adapt to weather, because it is thermochromic, meaning its emissivity changes at a certain temperature, and this property can be used to modify heat loss through radiation5,6. However, the temperature at which VO2 changes emissivity is fixed, and this makes it ill-suited to being used in different climatic regions. By contrast, the absorption and emission of electrochromic materials can be adjusted with an external voltage, and so these materials are ideal for smart devices that can dynamically regulate the optical and thermal properties of buildings. However, in existing electrochromic devices, it is difficult to achieve a large emissivity contrast (the range of possible emissivities) at mid-infrared frequencies, and these technologies also have problems with long-term durability7. Moreover, the electrolytes commonly used in these devices are expensive and flammable and have other safety issues that limit their applicability8. A new system is therefore required to systematically solve these problems and provide a stable and switchable building envelope that can maximize energy savings.

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Fig. 1: Regulating thermal emission across seasons.

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Acknowledgements

Y.L. is thankful for the funding support from Minister of Education Singapore Tier 1 RG71/21, Global STEM Professorship Scheme sponsored by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Chinese University of Hong Kong Start Up Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science & Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Meiying Leng & Yi Long

  2. Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Yi Long

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  1. Meiying Leng
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  2. Yi Long
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Correspondence to Yi Long.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Leng, M., Long, Y. A smart way to wrap a building. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01061-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01061-4

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