Project description
Thermochromic materials are smart materials capable of changing their optical properties by temperature. Thermochromic coatings are proved to be ideal smart coatings for improving the energy efficiency of buildings during both cold and hot periods. The photodegradation of dye-based thermochromic materials, however, is one of the major obstacles for using thermochromic coatings on building envelopes. This project aims to investigate the viability of using different types of non-dye nanoscale thermochromic coatings including Quantum Dots (QDs), photonic Crystals, Plasmonics, and Vanadium Oxide Nanoparticles as alternatives to their dye-based counterparts for the building application. The i-link project will be carried out in collaboration with other research institutions including the Spanish National Research Council-CSIC (Spain), National University of Singapore-NUS (Singapore), Politecnico Di Torino (Italy), California State Polytechnic University Pomona (US), and Graz University of Technology (Austria). The UNSW team will be working on temperature sensitive QDs in this project. The i-link project is expected to be performed in two years starting from January 2020. Throughout the project, the i-link partners will be actively looking for EU funding calls as well as potential scientific, academic, and industrial partners to complement and enhance their capacities in development of nano-scale thermochromic materials for building applications. The i-link project is funded by the Spanish National Research Council-CSIC (Spain).
Project participants
Investigator: Samira Garshasbi
Supervisor: Scientia Prof Mattheos Santamouris