| Nov 30, 2022 |
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(Nanowerk News) Cooling accounts for about 15 percent of global energy consumption. Conventional clear windows allow the sun to heat up interior spaces, which energy-guzzling air-conditioners must then cool down. But what if a window could help cool the room, use no energy and preserve the view?
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Tengfei Luo, the Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and postdoctoral associate Seongmin Kim have devised a transparent coating for windows that does just that (ACS Energy Letters, “High-Performance Transparent Radiative Cooler Designed by Quantum Computing”).
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The coating, or transparent radiative cooler (TRC), allows visible light to come in and keeps other heat-producing light out. The researchers estimate that this invention can reduce electric cooling costs by one-third in hot climates compared to conventional glass windows.
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| Notre Dame’s Golden Dome partially photographed through a sample (top left) of a transparent radiative cooler coating. (Image: University of Notre Dame)
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Transparent radiative coolers can be used for buildings and cars to help address climate change challenges. Luo and his team were able to design their best-in-class TRC by using quantum computing combined with machine learning.
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The TRC is made up of multiple ultra-thin layers of materials that must be assembled in a precise configuration. By constructing a computational model of the TRC, researchers were able to test each possible configuration of layers in a fraction of a second to identify the optimum combination and order of materials.
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Guided by these results, they fabricated the new coating by layering silica, alumina and titanium oxide on a glass base — topping it off with the same polymer used to make contact lenses. The result was a 1.2 micron-thick coating that outperforms all other heat-reducing glass coatings on the market.
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“I think the quantum computing strategy is as important as the material itself,” said Luo. “Using this approach, we were able to find the best-in-class material, design a radiative cooler and experimentally prove its cooling effect.”
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