Dr. Edwin Tso’s paper titled “Near-Infrared-Activated Thermochromic Perovskite Smart Windows” has been published on Advanced Science (IF:16.806, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202106090) and featured as inside front cover in the Issue 14, Volume 9.

About the project:

Perovskite-based thermochromic smart windows that can change color have attracted much interest for their application in energy-efficient buildings. However, the high transition temperature hinders their practical application. Therefore, Dr Tso’s team designed a near-infrared (NIR) activated thermochromic perovskite window that enables reversible transition cycles at room temperature. Under natural sunlight (>700 W m?2), it efficiently harvests 78% NIR light to trigger the thermochromism of perovskites, blocking the heat gain from both the visible and NIR light. Meanwhile, it also exhibits a low mid-infrared emissivity of <0.3, suppressing thermal radiation to the indoor environment. A field test demonstrates that this smart window can reduce the indoor temperature by 8°C compared to a normal glass window at noon in Hong Kong. The near-room-temperature color change, multispectral thermal management, outstanding energy-saving ability, climate adaptability, and solution-based process of this window make it unique and promising for use as a new generation window technology in buildings.

Dr. Tso is the sole corresponding author of this paper. The first author is Mr. Liu Sai, a PhD student of SEE. The co-authors are Dr. Wang Ying and Prof. Yu Kin Man from the Department of Physics. Other co-authors are from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.