Vanadium dioxide nanomaterial for smart thermochromic glazing of windows

Nanostructural vanadium dioxide thin films are investigated as intelligent window coatings. The films are fabricated using reactive sputtering and post annealing. A reversible semiconductor to metal phase transition for as-deposited VO2 nanostructure films with grain size of similar to 8nm takes place at temperature of 35 degrees C, which lowers about 33 degrees C in comparison with a phase transition temperature of 68 degrees C in conventional VO2 films with grain size of 1-2 mu m. The results indicate that the nanostructural VO2 films are more suitable to the application for smart thermochromic glazing of windows than that of conventional VO2 films.