Looking to cut back on how much heater or air-conditioning your office or home uses? One way would be to create better insulation, or use smart windows which are basically windows that can change their tint to reflect light to help prevent heat from coming through, or to let more light through to heat up a building faster.
However such technology isn’t as widespread as it should be, and one of the reasons is due to cost in which obviously the technology does not come cheap. However thanks to scientists at MIT, they have come up with a way to potentially make smart windows a lot cheaper in the future, and this relies on the simple idea of stretching a material to reduce its thickness, which in turn allows more light to come through and vice versa.
Have you ever noticed how balloons are a pretty solid color when deflated, but when inflated somehow look more transparent? This is more or less the same idea that the scientists are working with, except that they have mathematically managed to figure out exactly how much light comes through based on the thickness of said material.
According to the report, the researchers created a “thin, rectangular stack of transparent PDMS sheets, mixed with a solution of black, micron-sized dye particles, that may be easily stretched, or deformed mechanically. With no deformation, the structure appears opaque. As it is stretched or inflated, the material lets in more light.” That being said, we reckon it might take a while before we start seeing such materials being used to create smart windows, but it definitely looks like something to look forward to in the future.
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