A cost-effective method to fabricate VO2 (M) nanoparticles and films with excellent thermochromic properties

In this paper, high crystallinity and pure phase VO2 (M) powder is synthesized by a novel and facile method. Aiding by additional manual grinding and etching process, 22 nm high-quality VO2 (M) nanoparticles can be obtained. The structure and properties of the VO2 (M) particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, transmission electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer. After mixing VO2 (M) nanoparticles with transparent polymer, thin films prepared by grinded VO2 nanoparticles show excellent thermochromic properties. The solar modulation ability is up to 12.4% with luminous transmittance of 62.7%. Moreover, The haze of films prepared by grinded VO2 (M) nanoparticles is down to 1.9%, which is far less than that of films prepared by original VO2 (Haze = 8.5%) and etched VO2 particles (Haze = 4.6%). Dramatical improvement of thermochromic property and definition indicate that it is a promising method to prepare large-scale VO2 nanoparticles and cost-effective smart window. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.