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Environmental Design Commons

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Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Theses/Dissertations

2021

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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Design

Evaluating The Thermoresponsive Properties Of Hydroxypropyl Cellulose Solutions For Smart Window Applications, Adam Reed Jan 2021

Evaluating The Thermoresponsive Properties Of Hydroxypropyl Cellulose Solutions For Smart Window Applications, Adam Reed

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With HVAC and building energy usage expected to increase, there is a strong need for autonomous thermal management solutions. In particular, there has been a growing interest in thermoresponsive (TR) smart windows that are activated by ambient temperature changes. Most TR smart windows contain a liquid solution between two panes. The goal of this research project was to develop a self-supporting smart window by forming a gel that maintained its TR properties. A gel is less prone to spilling in the case of window breakage. It was also desired to tune the phase transition to occur at environmentally relevant conditions …