Weather-Resistant Thermoresponsive UV-Curable Smart Window Composites Based on Paraffin Particles
Villabona, Marc (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)
Vallan, Lorenzo (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Ruiz-Molina, Daniel (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Roscini, Claudio (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Hernando, Jordi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Química)

Data:	2026
Resum:	Thermoresponsive composites made from phase change material particles embedded in polymer matrices show great promise for regulating sunlight transmittance in smart windows. However, their current performance is hindered by critical limitations. Composites obtained from water-soluble matrices present excellent optical performance, but they exhibit intrinsic poor weathering resistance, as they swell and dissolve upon water exposure (e. g. , during rainfall or cleaning with aqueous solutions). In contrast, those prepared from water-resistant curable polymers typically require expensive or custom-made phase change materials, and very often show undesired optical properties (e. g. , opaque states at room temperature or below). To address this challenge, in this work we developed novel thermoresponsive composite films comprising readily available paraffin particles dispersed within a cross-linked, water-insoluble acrylate matrix. The resulting materials exhibit excellent resistance to water while preserving the characteristic smart window behavior of paraffin-polymer composites; i. e. , they remain transparent at low temperatures due to refractive index matching between the matrix and the solid paraffin particles, and become opaque once this condition is lost upon thermally induced paraffin melting, enabling efficient modulation of solar heating gain. In addition, because paraffin-acrylate films are produced via photopolymerization, they are obtained in a fast, straightforward and scalable manner. These features, combined with their low cost, mechanical flexibility, and multistimuli-responsive behavior, make paraffin-acrylate composites a robust and scalable platform for next-generation smart window technologies.
Ajuts:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PDC2022-133368-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación TED2021-131709B–I00 Generalitat de Catalunya 2021/PROD-00190 Generalitat de Catalunya 2022/BP-00070 Agencia Estatal de Investigación CEX2021-001214-S Generalitat de Catalunya 2021/SGR-00064
Nota:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Thermoresponsive smart windows ; Phase change materials ; Polymer composites ; Solid lipid particles ; UV-curable coatings
Publicat a:	ACS applied materials & interfaces, Vol. 18, Num. 26 (July 2026) , p. 37058-37068, ISSN 1944-8252

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6c04877

11 p, 7.0 MB

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