Modern high-performance windows offer excellent thermal insulation which is good for the environment and for your heating bill. The excellent insulation might, however, also cause dewing on the outer glass surface that hampers the view out, typically during cold nights.
The dewing can be prevented by coating the outer surface of the window by a material that counteracts the radiation of heat to the surroundings and hence the cooling of the surface. Today such coatings are made from indium tin oxide (ITO), but ITO is expensive, because it contains the scarcely available element Indium.
The objective of SmartCoating is to develop an anti-dew coating for energy-efficient windows – a coating that is less expensive than the anti-dew coatings made from ITO available on the market today. The cost reduction shall be achieved by replacing expensive ITO by a much cheaper oxide made from abundant aluminium and zinc. Key enabler factor is thin-film plasma processing.
If successful, the project will not only impact the cost and performance of modern windows, but also create an opening for reducing the cost and environmental impact of the many products using ITO coatings today: touch screens, LEDs, solar cells, etc.
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Plasma processing in DTU’s laboratory
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Polyteknik’s Infinity concept for industrial plasma processing
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