New glass technology discovered: Window doubling as a huge TV?
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| Kenneth Chau (left) and and Loïc Markley (right) | coated small pieces of glass with extremely thin layers | of metal. |
as a giant thermostat or big screen TV. A discovery by
researchers at the University of British Columbia has
brought us one step closer to this becoming a reality.
Researchers at UBC's Okanagan campus in Kelowna found
that coating small pieces of glass with extremely thin layers
of metal like silver makes it possible to enhance the amount
of light coming through the glass. This, coupled with the
fact that metals naturally conduct electricity, may make it
possible to add advanced technologies to windowpanes and
other glass objects.
"Engineers are constantly trying to expand the scope of
materials that they can use for display technologies, and
having thin, inexpensive, see-through components that
conduct electricity will be huge," said UBC Associate
Professor and lead investigator Kenneth Chau. "I think one
of the most important implications of this research is the
potential to integrate electronic capabilities into windows
and make them smart."
The next phase of this research, added Chau, will be to
incorporate their invention onto windows with an aim to
selectively filter light and heat waves depending on the
season or time of day.
The theory underlying the research was developed by Chau
and collaborator Loïc Markley, an assistant professor of
engineering at UBC. Chau and Markley questioned what
would happen if they reversed the practice of applying
glass over metal--a typical method used in the creation of
energy efficient window coatings.
"It's been known for quite a while that you could put glass
on metal to make metal more transparent, but people have
never put metal on top of glass to make glass more
transparent," said Markley. "It's counter-intuitive to think
that metal could be used to enhance light transmission, but
we saw that this was actually possible, and our experiments
are the first to prove it."
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