Review on thermochromic vanadium dioxide based smart coatings: from lab to commercial application

Abstract

With an urgent demand of energy efficient coatings for building fenestrations, vanadium dioxide (VO 2 )-based thermochromic smart coatings have been widely investigated due to the reversible phase transition of VO 2 at a critical transition temperature of 68°C, which is accompanied by the modulation of solar irradiation, especially in the near-infrared region. As for commercial applications in our daily life, there are still some obstacles for VO 2 -based smart coatings, such as the high phase transition temperature, optical properties (luminous transmittance and solar modulation ability), environmental stability in a long-time period, as well as mass production. In this review, recent progress of thermochromic smart coatings to solve above obstacles has been surveyed. Meanwhile, future development trends have also been given to promote the goal of commercial production of VO 2 smart coatings.

Mitigating Deterioration of Vanadium Dioxide Thermochromic Films by Interfacial Encapsulation

“…[17][18][19] When discussing commercialization of VO 2 -based thermochromic coatings, the main parameters are the transition temperature, optical performances (including solar modulation ability [DT sol ] and luminous transmittance [T lum ]), production costs, and long-term stability (service life). [20][21][22][23] In recently reported work, researchers have made many efforts to solve these obstacles. The transition temperatures can be successfully decreased by doping and strain modulation.…”

Thermochromic Behavior of VO2/Polymer Nanocomposites for Energy Saving Coatings

“…'Smart' windows are able to intelligently self-regulate the amount of transmitted heat, while keeping the visible transmission mainly unchanged. Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) is one of the most promising solid-sate materials for smart windows due to its unique optical properties related to its inherent and ultrafast reversible structural (phase-change) transition from a monoclinic VO 2 (M) to tetragonal rutile VO 2 (R) structure at a critical transition temperature of T C = 68 • C, for pure monocrystalline material [8][9][10].Conventionally, 'smart' thermochromic windows are fabricated by vapor phase deposition techniques such as sputtering [11][12][13][14], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [15][16][17], and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [18]. However, all these techniques are restricted by the cost and scale of vacuum systems.…”

“…'Smart' windows are able to intelligently self-regulate the amount of transmitted heat, while keeping the visible transmission mainly unchanged. Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) is one of the most promising solid-sate materials for smart windows due to its unique optical properties related to its inherent and ultrafast reversible structural (phase-change) transition from a monoclinic VO 2 (M) to tetragonal rutile VO 2 (R) structure at a critical transition temperature of T C = 68 • C, for pure monocrystalline material [8][9][10].…”

Cytotoxicity of vanadium oxide nanoparticles and titanium dioxide‐coated vanadium oxide nanoparticles to human lung cells

“…The motivation for assessing the toxicity of TiO 2 ‐coated VO 2 NPs and comparing it with that of VO 2 NPs arose from the growing interest in their use in intelligent window (Chang et al, ; Li, Ji, Gao, Luo, & Kanehira, ; Qu et al, ). Considering the inevitable occupational exposure via inhalation during the production of VO 2 NPs, the most widely used human lung cell lines A549 and BEAS‐2B were selected for this study (Ursini et al, ; Zhang et al, ).…”

“…Separately, the thermochromic properties of VO 2 deteriorate when it is gradually oxidized in wet ambient atmospheres, and the yellowish color of VO 2 is not comfortable in practical application. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) coating is one of methods to solve the above problems, and also provides additional functions, such as photocatlysis of pollutions on surface (Chang et al, ; Chen, Cao, Chen, Luo, & Gao, ; Li, Ji, Gao, Luo, & Kanehira, ). Li, Ji, Gao, Luo, and Kanehira () prepared VO 2 @TiO 2 NPs and found that TiO 2 coating endowed VO 2 good visible transmittance, more pleasant blue color, and high chemical stability, which integrated energy‐savings and environmental protection functions.…”