Solar Light Management Enabled by Dual-Responsive Smart Window

Smart windows with tunable optical properties for energy-saving and privacy protection applications are receiving increasing attention. However, current studies of smart windows either involve the use of complex material preparation processes and complex device systems for window switching or continue to face several challenges, including low luminous transmittance, low luminous and solar modulation, and narrow wavelength range management problems. Here, we report a dual-responsive smart window that achieves solar light management in the range of 200- 2500 nm. This smart window is fabricated by combining a reversible thermoresponsive hydrogel that acts as a thermochromic material with a ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer film that acts as a transparent heater. The as-prepared smart window can modulate solar light over a range from ultraviolet to infrared and achieves active responses to high-temperature weather, with passive responses being produced through electrical heating. The smart window shows high luminous transmittance (81.7%) and high luminous modulation (81.6%), together with an outstanding solar modulation performance (62.9%). In outdoor demonstrations, the as-prepared smart window exhibited a promising temperature regulation ability under strong solar irradiation. Therefore, the proposed smart window promises to provide a simple and effective energy management technology for buildings.

Automated summary

This article presents a dual-responsive smart window that can manage solar light in a range from ultraviolet to infrared. The smart window is made of a reversible thermoresponsive hydrogel and a ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer film. It shows high luminous transmittance, high luminous modulation, and outstanding solar modulation performance.