Transparent to light, mirror for heat

2004/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak

Chemicals have invented the way to avoid heat in the laboratory. The newly invented glass has been placed in the laboratory windows, which, although it lets light through, reflects more than 29 degrees of heat.

This type of glass is obtained by mixing vanadium dioxide and tungsten metal (1.9%). The researchers knew that the addition of metal to vanadium dioxide reflected heat from 70 C. On this occasion, however, they have successful with the exact mixture, and although it gives common glass when there is less than 29 C, when arriving at that temperature the atomic structure changes and does not allow heat entry.

According to the authors, this type of glass will save a lot of money, since air conditioning systems will be less necessary. However, it is not yet available for marketing.