**Controlled Porosity in Thermochromic Coatings**

**Controlled Porosity in Thermochromic Coatings**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70890

Ning Wang, Yujie Ke and Yi Long Ning Wang, Yujie Ke and Yi Long Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70890

#### **Abstract**

Vanadium dioxide is a promising thermochromic material, seemed as the great candidate for smart window applications. The real application of VO2 requires high visible transmission (*T*lum) as well as large solar modulating abilities (∆*T*sol), which could not be achieved by pristine VO2 materials due to the trade-off between *T*lum and ∆*T*sol. Here in, the porosity design is thoroughly reviewed from the effect on modulating the thermochromic performance to the porous control and preparation. To begin with, the history, advantages, challenges and approaches to tackle the issues comprised of antireflection multilayer structure, nanothermochromism, patterning and porous design is introduced in detail. Then, the effect of porosity on improving the thermochromic performance of VO2 thin films is demonstrated using the newest experimental and simulation results. In the following, the porous control and structural synthesis, including the polymer-assisted deposition (PAD), freeze-drying, colloidal lithography as well as the dual phase transformation is summarized. Fourthly, the characterization methods, composed of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy as well as UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy are demonstrated. Finally, the challenges that the porous design faces and possible approaches to optimize the performance are presented.

**Keywords:** porosity, vanadium dioxide, thermochromism, smart window, energy saving
