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New material looks like frosted glass but lets in more light than a window
- mihaic 2y agoThis sounds like it might be a game-changer, to save us from all this modernism. Almost everyone I know agrees that classical style building are more beautiful to look at, but all that beautiful stone doesn't let in too much light. Now we might have materials that allow us to build with a more interesting esthetic and still allow as much natural light as possible.
- detourdog 2y agoDaylighting is more a factor of window geometry and orientation. The 1930s model schools in the USA all had day lighing requirements. This resulted in classrooms with long narrow windows and high ceilings to get daylight to cover the room. A 24’ x 30’ classroom would have 10’ ceilings with 7’ windows starting around 3’ off the floor. These windows would be on one wall and make up around 40% of the wall.
- canadiantim 2y agoArticle is very short on details, unfortunately
- inamberclad 2y agoHere's the paper, shame they never link to them directly: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48150-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48150-2
- dfex 2y agoThank you for this - the article had me wondering: if they are putting the PMMM film over glass, what's the point? - any extra transparency from the film will just be negated by the glass, but in the paper it appears they have developed a PMMM panel that they used in testing.
- allears 2y agoThe film doesn't create extra transparency, just the opposite, it's a diffuser, it's translucent. It lets light through, but details aren't visible through it. The interesting parts are the radiant cooling and the self-cleaning. However, it's just a thin film, so it needs a substrate like glass to be practically useful.
- ggm 2y agoCan you de-frost it with glucose syrup or honey the way I was shown on a TV science show you can de-frost normal frosted glass? (the refractive index is close enough)
- ridgeguy 2y agoProbably. The effect seems to depend on light interacting with textural surfaces of the PMMM material. If those surfaces are surrounded with a fluid having the same refractive index, the surfaces will disappear as far as first-order optical interactions go.
- ggm 2y agoRemember to put the frosty side of your glass "inside" the space you want to protect from casual viewing.
- gpm 2y agoGlucose syrup or honey or any liquid other than maybe accidentally splashing it with water isn't exactly "casual viewing", and water presumably won't work since it's a "superhydrophobic surface". But yeah, it's not a security tool.
- inamberclad 2y agoWow, this sounds pretty nice. I remember watching a MedCram video recently that pointed out that long wave IR light has anti-inflammatory properties and that modern IR blocking glass is actually depriving people of many of the beneficial effects of sunlight. If this could get people more IR, it could raise the bar for health across the board. Still, I have some concerns. It's a polymer nanomaterial, so it's probably fairly fragile. The "self cleaning" part is just that it's hydrophobic, which is nice but relies on the nanostructure. Again, probably susceptible to damage. The chemical itself, poly-dimethylsiloxane is pretty common but it appears that they're forming the nanostructures using a mould made via silicon lithography? That's not going to scale at all, nor does the coating seem durable enough for decades of outdoor use. I only skimmed the paper so please correct me if I'm wrong but this is very far from production-ready.
- hackernewds 2y agoMind linking this video? It sounds dubious but I'm curious
- hcarvalhoalves 2y agoProbably, the video he mentions is about this: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1011134422002287 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S101113442...
- dzhiurgis 2y agoAFAIK IR blocking film is fairly recent development. In NZ it's only past year when it became required for all new buildings (helps with reducing heating and cooling costs). Most glass blocks UV tho which makes some marketing shady.
- pajko 2y agohttps://patents.google.com/patent/EP1108231A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/EP1108231A1/en
- deleted 2y ago
- metadat 2y agoWhat does it look like when the inside space is illuminated but it's dark outside? (i.e. night time) This is why a window tint probably isn't a good idea for your home.. outside observers can see right in at night when a light is on.
- hackernewds 2y agoThey can see in anyways without the tint?
- metadat 2y agoExactly. If this Frosty glass performs like regular frosted glass in the dark, that'll be amaze!
- chii 2y agowindow curtains will do the job, as it has done so for centuries.
- metadat 2y agoNo so for 16" sidelights with2 large dogs. They'll just nose them out of the way and still patrolling bark at everything :)
- jeffbee 2y agoRare non-erroneous use of "silicone" by journalist.
- clord 2y agoI wonder if this coating would help solar cells avoid issues with small shadows causing the array to sag, by dispersing the shadow.
- jacobolus 2y agoDoes anyone know where I can buy this or a similar highly transparent but diffusing material?
- lazyeye 2y agoSearch for "window privacy film" on Amazon or Ebay. Its a thin plastic static cling film you can put on glass that mimics frosted bathroom windows.
- jacobolus 2y agoThat doesn't really meet the needs of my particular application. I want to let as much light through as possible, just scatter it a bit, but that privacy film stuff reflects quite a lot of light.
- lazyeye 2y agoThere are tons of different kinds of privacy film so there might be one that works for you.