A breakthrough by researchers at the University of British Columbia could change the function of windows by expanding the range of features they could offer.
In the quest to make more energy-efficient windows, it has been common practice for scientists to apply a layer of glass over metal. This technique is used in making coatings for energy-efficient windows because glass makes metal more transparent, so more light would pass through these windows, reducing the need for artificial lighting and therefore decreasing electricity bills.
“It’s been known for quite a while that you could put glass on metal to make metal more transparent, but people have never put metal on top of glass to make glass more transparent,” Loïc Markley, assistant professor of engineering at the University of British Columbia, said in a press release.
A reversal of this standard practice, involving placing metal on top of glass, is what Markley and Kenneth Chau, the lead investigator of this project and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, attempted. By using this technique, they were able to find new and unique properties of metal coatings on glass.
This metal coating serves two purposes. As is commonly known, metals conduct electricity. However, this experiment also yielded a new discovery. By placing thin layers of metal coating on small pieces of glass, Chau and his team realized that the metal coating actually made the glass more transparent. More transparency allows for more light to pass through the medium.
“It’s counter-intuitive to think that metal could be used to enhance light transmission, but we saw that this was actually possible, and our experiments are the first to prove it,” Markley said.
The combination of enhancing light transmission through glass and metals conducting electricity may give rise to adding advanced technology to house windows. This could involve turning windows into television screens, thermostats or just about anything that can be operated electronically.
Chau believes that his team’s discovery could provide massive advancements for display technology.
“Engineers are constantly trying to expand the scope of materials that they can use for display technology, and having thin, inexpensive, see-through components that conduct electricity will be huge,” Chau said in the release.
Currently a similar type of display technology, called smart mirror technology, is also being researched. Through this technology, mirrors would be able to display the date, time, weather forecast and news. This also has many practical uses since it provides users with the ability to quickly prepare for the day ahead while they are coming out of the shower or brushing their teeth.
However, smart mirrors rely on having an LCD film embedded between the two sheets of glass of the mirror, which means that smart mirrors would be fairly limited in their functionality outside of simple displays. Chau’s project is based more on making electricity available in glass so that windows and glass can have a wider range of uses.
The next step for Chau and Markley’s team will be to integrate this technology into windows so that it is possible to alter the amount of light passing through them, depending on whether it is day or night, rainy or sunny and summer or winter. They are also researching how to electrically control the amount of heat that is able to come through a window, which could lower heating and energy costs inside a house.
One of Chau’s goals is to make standard household features, such as windows, have more function.
“I think one of the most important implications of this research is the potential to integrate electronic capabilities into windows and make them smart,” Chau said.
Given the rapid growth in the field of display technology, that potential may soon be realized.
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