Mesoporous optically clear heat insulators for sustainable building envelopes

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Physical Chemistry

Background:

• Mesoporous materials offer tunable nanoscale structures and properties.
• Scaling fabrication of these materials for large-scale applications remains a significant challenge.
• Current methods struggle to produce mesoporous materials in sizes suitable for architectural or energy applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a scalable fabrication process for large-area, thick mesoporous materials.
• To create novel metamaterials with high optical transparency and low thermal conductivity.
• To explore potential applications in transparent thermal barriers and solar energy harnessing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a solution-based kinetic fabrication process.
• Templated growing networks of cylindrical surfactant micelles with polysiloxane gel.
• Replaced surfactants and solvents with air to form porous structures.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated flexible square-meter-sized films and multicentimeter-thick slabs.
• Achieved mesoporous structures with features under 50 nanometers.
• Obtained materials with >99% visible-range optical transparency.
• Measured thermal conductivity of approximately 10 mW/(K·m).

Conclusions:

• Demonstrated a viable method for large-scale production of advanced mesoporous materials.
• Highlighted the potential of these metamaterials as transparent thermal barriers.
• Identified applications in energy-efficient building retrofits and solar thermal energy capture.