Heating, ventilation and air conditioning of buildings account for about 15% of the global energy consumption, but about 20% of this building-related energy is lost because of inefficient windows. Greenhouse emissions associated with producing and using this energy contribute substantially to climate change. Is there a solution to this challenging problem? Starting from the physical principles associated with energy loss through windows, I will describe our development of a solution in the form of visibly transparent, thermally super-insulating materials that may replace or retrofit the inefficient windowpanes of residential and commercial buildings. I will discuss how production of such transparent porous materials is enabled by mesoscale colloidal self-assembly and templating of orderly porous structures using lyotropic surfactant-based liquid crystals. With highly monodisperse pores controlled at the scale of nanometers, fabrication of such materials can be scaled to square-meter and larger dimensions by invoking self-assembly and simple processing. I will discuss how deployment of these porous materials can boost energy efficiency of windows, skylights and buildings in general.

Mesoporous materials templated by liquid crystals for window applications

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.