Formation of VO₂ zero-dimensional/nanoporous layers with large supercooling effects and enhanced thermochromic properties

Vanadium dioxide is an intriguing candidate for use in intelligent devices such as sensors, magnetic refrigeration and particularly as solar modulating smart window materials. A facile sol-gel route is developed to produce pure VO₂ with different nanostructures in a CO₂ atmosphere. It was found that the nanoporous structures demonstrated a 16% increase in the luminous transmittance (T_lum) (from 20% to 36%) compared with the vacuum results, while large supercooling effects of up to 30°C have been observed in zero-dimensional structures.