Photograph of a large-scale conductive nylon mesh. Inset is Ag nanowire ink using ethanol as a solvent. (Image by YU Shuhong)
Tuning the light intensity and reducing the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) in commercial buildings are both crucial to keep indoor people comfortable and healthy. Though smart flexible windows are promising, up to now, it is still a significant challenge to fabricate smart window with large scale.
Recently, a research team led by Prof. YU Shuhong from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) develops a simple process to fabricate 7.5 m2 Ag-nylon flexible transparent windows for high-efficiency PM2.5 capture with only about 15.03 dollars and 20 minutes.
The obtained Ag-nylon window material serves not only to turn the indoor light intensity as thermochromic smart windows after uniformly coated with thermochromic dye, but also to purify indoor air as high-efficiency PM2.5 filter.
The stablility of obtained material is also outstanding. Its performance remains stable after 10,000 bending cycles. In addition, even after 100 cycles of PM filtration and cleaning process, it still exhibits a removal efficiency of 99.65%.
The success of the present design strategy provides more choices in developing next-generation flexible transparent smart windows and air pollution filters.
The paper was published on iScience’s official website on Feb 7 and on Feb 22, the print edition will come out.
(Written by LIU Jianwei, edited by HU Dongyin, USTC News Center)
