MADMEC 2008:
"Materials Solutions for Alternative Energy"

TEAM NAME: INFRACONSTO

Team Members

Jin Suntivich, DMSE G

Ethan Crumlin, Course 2 G
G.J. Lao, DMSE G

Abstract
We propose to make a material that would selectively disallow passage of infrared radiation (8-13microns range) for making visibly transparent glass that minimizes heat exchange between both sides. Energy prices have soared to the highest level ever recorded in history. Any type of energy saving is critical in going forward to the future of efficient energy usage. Currently, a large portion of energy in a household is spent lighting and heating/cooling homes and buildings throughout the 24hour cycle. To reduce energy consumption, natural sunlight is seen as replacement for lighting during daytime. Utilizing ordinary transparent glass however adds on another problem, which is heat exchange between inside and outside. Uncontrolled heat exchange can cause large temperature fluctuations indoors. Excessive heating or cooling can cause sickness, loss of work productivity, disease, and even death. Furthermore, many temperature control devices such as air condition or heating require high operation energy. Isolation of heat exchange to the environment is therefore crucial for energy saving. The challenge is to engineer a material that insulates both phonon and non-visible photon from transferring across the glass. Our strategy is to take advantage of a low-cost periodic structure that would help disable propagation of larger wavelength photon such as IR, along with phonon transport, which accounts for direct heat flow. We plan to fabricate simple micro-periodic structure thin film using low-cost techniques such as micro-patterning, stamping/printing, or self-assembly. Stacking different structure on top of another, we effectively stop both infrared and phonon propagation, thus forming a multi-junction microscale periodic crystal.