Transparent hydrophobic thermal insulation CsxWO3-ZnO-SiO2 coatings:Energy saving, anti-dust and anti-fogging performance

CsxWO3-ZnO-SiO2 smart coatings were proposed to achieve multiple functions, such as thermal insulation, anti-dust, anti-fogging and blocking harmful ultraviolet light, etc. The transparent hydrophobic hybrid resinswere prepared frommethyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and SiO2 sol,whichwas used as the substrate of the composite coating. TheCsxWO3 is served as the near-infrared (NIR) absorber, and the ZnOis functioned as the ultraviolet (UV) blocking agent. Coatings with different ratios of CsxWO3 andZnOwere successfully prepared by co-blendingwith nano-SiO2 resin.The morphology,microstructure, surface composition, hydrophobicity, thermal stability, anti-dust and optical property of the composite coatingswere investigated comprehensively.The transmittance of C10Z10 (CsxWO3 10%, ZnO10%, nano-SiO2 resin 80%) coating at 370nmis 2.3%, and the value of Solar EnergyTransmittance Selectivity (SETS) is 0.665,which exhibits excellent NIRshielding ability. Compared with nano-SiO2 resin coating, the thermal insulation temperature difference can reach 7.0 °C.TheC10Z10 coating showed good durability in the twenty times anti-dust repeated tests and the efficiency couldmaintain 70.3%after the repeating tests. The coating showed excellent sustainability after a 45-day outdoor exposure experiment and a 240 h of artificial accelerated aging experiment. Thus, the proposedCsxWO3-ZnO-SiO2 coatings are promising for outdoorsmartwindows.