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arXiv · 2505.23213

Transparent and heat-insulation bionic hydrogel-based smart window system for long-term cooling and waste heat collection

Abstract

With the energy crisis and climate warming, the position of a new generation of smart windows is becoming increasingly important, and materials or systems that can have high blocking of near-infrared (NIR) and ultraviolet (UV) and high transmittance of visible light (VIS) are needed. Currently, it is difficult for smart heat-insulation materials to achieve high transmittance of VIS, good UV isolation, outstanding cooling and thermal insulation, and excellent waste heat collection. Here, we design a novel composite hydrogel to achieve an average 92% VIS transmittance, efficient UV absorption , 11 Celsius degree of thermal insulation, and sensing properties. Interestingly, we designed a transparent heat insulation system with this composite hydrogel to obtain about 22 Celsius degree of the record-breaking insulation performance for 168 hours, waste heat collection and reutilization, and temperature sensing. Our findings provide new ideas and possibilities for designing transparent and heat-insulation smart window systems.

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Qianwang Ye, Hanqing Dai, Yukun Yan, Liwei Wang, Xinlin Du, Yimeng Wang, Zhile Han, Wanlu Zhang, Ruiqian Guo. 2025-05-29. Transparent and heat-insulation bionic hydrogel-based smart window system for long-term cooling and waste heat collection. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.23213

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