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Smart windows based on the octopus organism

13.02.2023

People came up with the idea of building houses and buildings to be less dependent on the weather and the environment. However, maintaining comfortable conditions inside requires continuous expenditures for lighting, heating or cooling. According to 2021 data, they account for 30 percent of the world's energy consumption, generating about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. And the ongoing global warming only increases these figures.

The main channels through which buildings heat up in the heat and cool in the cold are windows. They let rays of different wavelengths pass through, and together with the light, heat inevitably penetrates inside - or is lost in vain, leaving for the street. Therefore, scientists and engineers are trying to create more technological glass that would not interfere with natural light, but at the same time would block other types of radiation. For example, they can automatically dim in bright light.

However, such solutions are not flexible enough, and ideally, the window should be able to change bandwidth flexibly. Such a window can become transparent only for certain waves, adjusting to the conditions in order to provide both the necessary illumination and minimal energy loss. Just such a solution was recently demonstrated by a team from the Canadian University of Toronto.

Benjamin Hatton and his colleagues demonstrated a prototype made of transparent plastic, between the layers of which a network of tubes with a diameter of about a millimeter is enclosed. A liquid with pigments is pumped through them, making the "glass" opaque for a certain range of radiation. The "window" uses several such layers, each of which has its own pigment solution with its own characteristics. By controlling the flow of fluid in them, it is possible to change the throughput of the entire system.

According to scientists, this solution is borrowed from nature. More precisely, the skin of octopuses, famous for their ability to change color. This is achieved by a multilayer structure containing pigment-filled chromatophore cells. Their "tuning" allows you to change the characteristics of absorption and reflection of radiation, flexibly changing the appearance and color of the animal.

Based on the characteristics obtained from the prototype test results, the authors calculated the potential economic effect from the use of such "windows". According to these estimates, even a single-layer system that controls the passage of NIR waves will reduce heating and cooling costs by 25 percent. And if you add a layer responsible for the radiation of the visible range to it, then the savings can already reach 50 percent.

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