The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced on November 21, 2007, that it had developed a light-control mirror film, which controls sunlight efficiently and helps increase security by switching between reflective and transparent states with very little voltage. The institute said that the system was successfully built on a 100-micrometer-thick film.

In recent years, double insulating glasses and heat reflecting glasses have been widely used in order to enhance energy-efficiency by increasing the thermal insulating performance of windowpanes. Light control glasses, however, had been expected to save more energy by effectively controlling light from outside as necessary. One of the problems with conventional light control glasses is that they heat up by absorbing sunlight, reradiating the heat into the room. The newly developed flexible switchable mirror film has solved this problem by controlling sunlight through reflection.

Moreover, it can be produced as a thin film, and can be applied to both glass plates and flexible substrates such as plastic. Just by applying the film to existing window glasses, the amount of heat or cooling load inside buildings or cars can be controlled at the flick of a switch. The range of applications for this film is expected to expand dramatically in the near future.

http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_research/2007/20071213/20071213.html
http://www.aist.go.jp/index_en.html

Posted: 2008/03/13 11:09:15 AM

TAG Eco-product/Business , Energy , University/Research institute