Phase separation of VO2 and SiO2 on SiO2-Coated float glass yields robust thermochromic coating with unrivalled optical properties

Vanadium dioxide displays thermochromic properties based on its structural phase transition from monoclinic VO2 (M) to rutile VO2 (R) and vice versa, and the accompanying reversible metal-insulator transition. We developed a single layer coating comprising VO2 (M) and SiO2. We applied the coating from an alcoholic solution comprising vanadium(IV...

Anticipatory Life Cycle Assessment of sol-gel derived anti-reflective coating for greenhouse glass

Environmental analysis should be performed early in the Research and Development (R&D) phases of new technologies to timely determine potential impact and, thereby, include prevention and minimization of unfavorable ecological impact into the innovation process. Here, we demonstrate the application of anticipatory Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on...

Synthesis of polystyrene-polyphenylsiloxane Janus particles through colloidal assembly with unexpected high selectivity: Mechanistic insights and their application in the design of polystyrene particles with multiple polyphenylsiloxane patches

Janus particles are of great research interest because of their reduced symmetry, which provides them with unique physical and chemical properties. Such particles can be prepared from spherical structures through colloidal assembly. Whilst colloidal assembly has the potential to be a low cost and scalable process, it typically lacks selectivity....

Fast Processing of Sol-Gel TCO

TCOs are usually deposited using sputtering or chemical vapor deposition, which have a yield of typically 50-75%. The sol gel method does not need low pressure and can be done with a high precursor yield in the range of 90 – 100%. Sol gel enables also the TCO function as a planarization or texturisation layer. Major drawback and cost driver is...

Improving the scratch resistance of sol-gel metal oxide coatings cured at 250 C through use of thermogenerated amines

Scratch resistant sol-gel metal oxide coatings typically require a thermal post-treatment step (curing process) at temperatures between 400 and 700 C. In this report, we demonstrate that the in situ generation of amines within sol-gel films facilitates the preparation of scratch resistant metal oxide coatings at a curing temperature of 250 C. A...

Sol-gel coatings on large area glass sheets for electrochromic devices

The preparation of vanadium and tungsten oxide coatings is described using vanadium oxide tri-2-propoxide/2-propanol and tungsten penta-ethoxide/2-propanol solutions. These solutions are dip coated onto K-glass substrates and cured. For vanadium oxide coatings it is shown that sol-gel/dip coat processing is a feasible production technology for...