A robust smart window: reversibly switching from high transparency to angle-independent structural color display

Dengteng Ge; Elaine Lee; Lili Yang; Yigil Cho; Min Li; Daniel S Gianola; Shu Yang

doi:10.1002/adma.201500281

A robust smart window: reversibly switching from high transparency to angle-independent structural color display

Adv Mater. 2015 Apr 17;27(15):2489-95. doi: 10.1002/adma.201500281. Epub 2015 Mar 2.

Authors

Dengteng Ge¹, Elaine Lee, Lili Yang, Yigil Cho, Min Li, Daniel S Gianola, Shu Yang

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 3231 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.

PMID: 25732127
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201500281

Abstract

A smart window is fabricated from a composite consisting of elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) embedded with a thin layer of quasi-amorphous silica nanoparticles. The smart window can be switched from the initial highly transparent state to opaqueness and displays angle-independent structural color via mechanical stretching. The switchable optical property can be fully recovered after 1000 stretching/releasing cycles.

Keywords: angle-independent structural color; bilayer elastomeric films; nanovoids; quasi-amorphous nanoparticle arrays; smart windows.