The world’s first ‘phase change ink’ has been developed, changing the way buildings, homes and automobiles are heated and cooled, capable of achieving sophisticated ‘passive climate’ control, improving energy use and global greenhouses. May help reduce effect gas emissions
World’s first ‘phase change ink’ developed that can change the way buildings, homes and cars are heated and cooled, enabling advanced ‘passive climate’ control, reducing energy use and global greenhouse gas emissions has great potential to reduce
New research published in The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of Materials Chemistry A Led by Dr. Mohammad Taha, documents a proof-of-concept ‘phase-change ink’ that uses nanotechnology to control the temperature of everyday environments. They accomplish this by adjusting the amount of radiation that can pass through them based on their surrounding environment.
Dr. Taha said these inks could be used to develop coatings to achieve passive heating and cooling, reducing the need to rely on energy generation to regulate temperature.
“Humans use a lot of energy to create and maintain a comfortable environment – heating and cooling buildings, homes, cars and even our bodies,” says Dr. Taha.
“We can no longer focus solely on generating energy from renewable sources to reduce our environmental impact. Reducing energy consumption should be considered as part of the solution.
“Designing the ink to react to its surroundings not only reduces energy consumption, but also eliminates the need for an auxiliary control system to control temperature, which is an additional energy waste.”
Passive climate control provides a comfortable living environment without unnecessarily consuming energy. For example, to provide comfortable heating in the winter, inks applied to building facades allow more solar radiation to pass through during the day, and automatically insulate and keep warm at night. may change substantially. In summer, it can transform to form a barrier that blocks thermal radiation from the sun and the surrounding environment.
A versatile “phase change ink” is a proof of concept that can be laminated, sprayed, or added to paints and building materials. They can also regulate body temperature in extreme environments and can be incorporated into the creation of large-scale flexible wearable electronic devices such as bendable circuits, cameras and detectors, gas and temperature sensors.
Dr Taha said: This means that existing structures and building materials can be retrofitted. With manufacturing interest, the ink he could be on the market in five to ten years.
“Through collaboration with industry, we can scale up and integrate them with existing and new technologies as part of a holistic approach to addressing the global climate change energy challenge.
“The potential for this material is enormous, as it can be used for so many different purposes, such as preventing heat build-up in laptop electronics or car windshields. The ability to tailor heat absorption properties to suit your needs.
“Although another type of phase-change material is already used to make smart glass, our new material means we can design smarter bricks and paints. It helps us retrofit existing buildings more efficiently, which is better for the environment and sustainable for the future.”
This breakthrough was achieved by discovering a way to modify vanadium oxide (VO2), one of the key ingredients in ‘phase change materials’. Phase change materials use a trigger such as heat or electricity to generate enough energy for the material to transform itself under stress. However, phase change materials previously had to be heated to very high temperatures to activate their “phase change” properties.
“We used our understanding of how these materials combine to test how an insulator-to-metal (IMT) reaction could be triggered. , the material basically acts as a switch that blocks heat beyond a certain temperature (near room temperature) (30-40oC),” said Dr. Taha.
Dr Taha said the next step is to commercialize research patented by the University of Melbourne.
Original: ‘Nanoink’ can passively control the temperature of buildings and cars
Than: University of Melbourne
