Post by account_disabled on Feb 27, 2024 1:53:29 GMT -5
The hydrogel glass window.
After summer, much of the world has sweltered this year, many people are thinking about better ways to cool buildings. Researchers in China have now spruced up the humble window with hydrogel glass, a material that can selectively block the Sun's heat without blocking its light.
Regular glass is designed to allow visible light to pass through and illuminate the room, but its interactions with infrared light, which feels like heat, are less desirable. The hydrogel glass window lets near-infrared radiation from sunlight pass through, while preventing mid-infrared light from escaping the room, which works to heat a building. In summer, that sweltering heat will cause people to turn up the air conditioning more frequently, resulting in higher energy consumption .
To try to counter that problem, scientists at Wuhan University have now experimented with new window materials that interact with light differently. A layer of hydrogel a few millimeters thick on top of the glass was designed to reflect more near-infrared light from the outside and allow more mid-infrared light to escape from the inside, all while remaining just as tran Brazil Mobile Number List sparent to visible light.
The idea is that visible light photons can penetrate more than m into water, while photons in the near-infrared part of the spectrum can only go a few millimeters. Since hydrogels are mostly water, that makes them a useful and selective barrier.
In tests, the team found that the hydrogel glass emitted up to % of infrared light directly into space, since these wavelengths are not blocked by the atmosphere. This would help keep the interior of a building cooler, similar to other radiant cooling systems. Normal glass, for its part, emits around %.
Importantly, hydrogel glass does not look dimmer than regular glass; in fact, it lets in a little more light. Depending on the thickness of the hydrogel layer, it allowed up to % of visible light to enter the room, compared to % for ordinary glass.
The team tested the performance of hydrogel glass in model homes measuring x x cm, with thick insulated walls and a large window. Sensors indicated that the hydrogel glass windows reduced interior temperatures by up to °C (°F).
El equipo dice que este material podría ayudar a reducir el consumo de energía para la refrigeración, lo que beneficiaría tanto al medio ambiente como al bolsillo de los usuarios. Los hidrogeles también son comunes y económicos, por lo que deberían ser relativamente simples de implementar, lo que podría darles una ventaja sobre otras ventanas inteligentes más complejas.
En su informe, TechInsights escribió que SMIC ahora tiene la intención de «brindar acceso a procesos de fabricación avanzados a empresas chinas que han sido restringidas de la semifabricación avanzada establecida, reducir la dependencia de China de la tecnología y las restricciones occidentales, usar lo que han aprendido de los «tres grandes». (TSMC, Samsung e Intel) y acelerar la introducción y el paso a la producción en masa».
After summer, much of the world has sweltered this year, many people are thinking about better ways to cool buildings. Researchers in China have now spruced up the humble window with hydrogel glass, a material that can selectively block the Sun's heat without blocking its light.
Regular glass is designed to allow visible light to pass through and illuminate the room, but its interactions with infrared light, which feels like heat, are less desirable. The hydrogel glass window lets near-infrared radiation from sunlight pass through, while preventing mid-infrared light from escaping the room, which works to heat a building. In summer, that sweltering heat will cause people to turn up the air conditioning more frequently, resulting in higher energy consumption .
To try to counter that problem, scientists at Wuhan University have now experimented with new window materials that interact with light differently. A layer of hydrogel a few millimeters thick on top of the glass was designed to reflect more near-infrared light from the outside and allow more mid-infrared light to escape from the inside, all while remaining just as tran Brazil Mobile Number List sparent to visible light.
The idea is that visible light photons can penetrate more than m into water, while photons in the near-infrared part of the spectrum can only go a few millimeters. Since hydrogels are mostly water, that makes them a useful and selective barrier.
In tests, the team found that the hydrogel glass emitted up to % of infrared light directly into space, since these wavelengths are not blocked by the atmosphere. This would help keep the interior of a building cooler, similar to other radiant cooling systems. Normal glass, for its part, emits around %.
Importantly, hydrogel glass does not look dimmer than regular glass; in fact, it lets in a little more light. Depending on the thickness of the hydrogel layer, it allowed up to % of visible light to enter the room, compared to % for ordinary glass.
The team tested the performance of hydrogel glass in model homes measuring x x cm, with thick insulated walls and a large window. Sensors indicated that the hydrogel glass windows reduced interior temperatures by up to °C (°F).
El equipo dice que este material podría ayudar a reducir el consumo de energía para la refrigeración, lo que beneficiaría tanto al medio ambiente como al bolsillo de los usuarios. Los hidrogeles también son comunes y económicos, por lo que deberían ser relativamente simples de implementar, lo que podría darles una ventaja sobre otras ventanas inteligentes más complejas.
En su informe, TechInsights escribió que SMIC ahora tiene la intención de «brindar acceso a procesos de fabricación avanzados a empresas chinas que han sido restringidas de la semifabricación avanzada establecida, reducir la dependencia de China de la tecnología y las restricciones occidentales, usar lo que han aprendido de los «tres grandes». (TSMC, Samsung e Intel) y acelerar la introducción y el paso a la producción en masa».